The most famous ‘Caesar’, for example, inherited the name from his ancestors… but the name means ‘hairy’, because one of his ancestors was presumably hairy.
That is one possible explanation but other possibilities include the name being deriven of “caesius” meaning blueish-grey (eyes?) or “caesarian”, a procedure of delivering a child by cutting through the mother’s abdomen (yep, c-section (c being short for caesarian section) is that old). There is also something floating around about a lost carthaginian term for elephants.
I’ve heard that one before, but it’s almost definitely untrue - women surviving through c-sections was unheard of before the modern day, and Caesar’s mother was very prominent in his life.
Considering how widespread the cognomen Ceasar was, it can be someone else. Yeah, the procedure was usually intended as a last ditch effort once the mother was already dead. Rates of survival of the kid were still incredibly low until modern medicine
That is one possible explanation but other possibilities include the name being deriven of “caesius” meaning blueish-grey (eyes?) or “caesarian”, a procedure of delivering a child by cutting through the mother’s abdomen (yep, c-section (c being short for caesarian section) is that old). There is also something floating around about a lost carthaginian term for elephants.
I had heard the c-section coming from a Caesar being born through it and unexpectedly surviving, so an etymology going the other way
I’ve heard that one before, but it’s almost definitely untrue - women surviving through c-sections was unheard of before the modern day, and Caesar’s mother was very prominent in his life.
Considering how widespread the cognomen Ceasar was, it can be someone else. Yeah, the procedure was usually intended as a last ditch effort once the mother was already dead. Rates of survival of the kid were still incredibly low until modern medicine
Ah, I missed the ‘a’