Latinisation of names

Common card · No. 383052

Latinisation (or Latinization) of names is the practice of changing certain non-Latin names into a form that more closely fits the style, structure, and rules of Latin. The practice is found with historical proper names, including personal names and toponyms, and in the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. In present-day English, the practice of using Latinised names for certain prominent individuals began in the medieval period of Europe and peaked in the Renaissance. In some cases, the individuals themselves even used or created these Latinised names. Latinisation is distinct from romanisation, which is the transliteration of a word to the Latin alphabet, more or less letter-for-letter or sound-for-sound, from another script (e.g. the writing systems of Cyrillic, Devanagari/Hindi, Arabic, etc.). For authors writing in Latin, this change allows the name to function grammatically in a sentence through declension. Many other reasons for an author to apply this to their own...

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