Mamercus is a Latin praenomen

Praenomen

The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...

, or personal name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

, which was used in pre-Roman times and throughout the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

, becoming disused in imperial times. The feminine form is Mamerca. The patronymic gens Mamercia was derived from this name, as were the cognomina

Cognomen

The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...

Mamercus and Mamercinus. The name was usually abbreviated Mam.

The praenomen Mamercus is best known from gens Aemilia, one of the greatest of the patrician houses at Rome, which claimed descent from Mamercus, said to have been a son of Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. What tales are descended to us about him come from Valerius Antias, an author from the early part of the 1st century BC known through limited mentions of later authors , Dionysius of Halicarnassus circa 60BC-...

, the second king of Rome. Several prominent members of this family bore the name during the Roman Republic. The Pinarii, another patrician family, is also said to have used the praenomen Mamercus, although no examples from this gens have been preserved. According to one tradition, the Pinarii were descended from another son of Numa Pompilius, although in his history of Rome, Titus Livius

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 records that the gens was still more ancient, and predated the founding of the city.

Both the Aemilii and the Pinarii used Mamercus and Mamercinus as cognomina. Other families which used these names as cognomina may have used the praenomen Mamercus at one time.

Origin and Meaning of the Name

According to Festus, the praenomen Mamercus was derived from the name of the god Mamers, who was worshipped throughout Italy in pre-Roman times, and was particularly associated with the Oscans. Since classical times, scholars have postulated that Mamers was the Oscan form of Mars

Mars (mythology)

Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...

, although the names Marcus and Mamercus frequently existed side-by-side. Whatever the case, Mamercus is generally believed to have been an Oscan praenomen that was brought to Rome during the reign of Numa Pompilius, if not earlier.

Although Mamercus was never widely used at Rome, it came to be regarded as a Latin praenomen. It was always included in lists of personal names, and even received its own regular abbreviation.

The Etruscan form of the name, borrowed from either Latin or Oscan, is Mamarce.