The Naming of Magi

by Mark D F Shirley



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The Naming of Magi
by Alexander Scriptor, scholae Tytali

I am constantly amazed at the lack of regard that magi of today have for the traditions laid down by our forebears, in the early days of the Order of Hermes. Take the giving of Hermetic names, for example. Like many things in the Order, the early magi took as their precedent the conventions of ancient Rome when assigning the formal attribution of a new magus before his or her tribunal. This formal name is recorded in the tribunal records and is used for all official business. It is unique to the magus, so there can be no question to the magus's identity, although the Order even today is not of sufficient size for this to be a problem. Some derivation of the formal name is used for the day-to-day business of the magus.

So, what are the elements of a magus's formal name? As I have already mentioned, it is modelled on the pattern of Rome, and therefore has six elements:

There is one final element to a formal name - the title. These are few and far between, and are placed at the beginning of the name. Currently, the only official titles recognised are Praeco, Primus, Quaesitor, Archimagus and Hoplite. the final one has difficulty in translation, being a Greek word - some use the pseudo-Latin "hoplitus", others prefer the true Latin "ultor / ultrix" (masculine and feminine forms, respectively).

To use myself as the example of a formal name:

Alexander filius Geniculi doctrinae Tytali Scriptor ab Durenmare

Note that my praenomen and nomen are the same. Commun usage reduces this to just a nomen and cognomen for brevity - Alexander Scriptor.

Another example:

Quaesitor Jeanne-Marie Piacula filia Iasoni Munis scholae Jerbitonis Maioribus Claravallensis, otherwise known as Piacula Maioribus of Clairvaux.

This convention - though somewhat cumbersome, is nevertheless the invention of our Hermetic ancestors, and I urge people to return their names to their formal beauty.