#If a late-assigned praenomen could be a gens

[ihavedonenothingright]

I find it so interesting that despite using Latin surnames, Muir doesn't care about gender agreement until it comes to Kiriona.

Harrow and Ianthe both have masculine surnames (Nonagesimus and Tridentarius), as do most characters with Latin name endings (us, a, um), but Kiriona? Oh there's something very interesting there.

In Ancient Rome, male citizens were commonly distinguished by three part names: praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. Since I'm still feeling festive, take Gaius Iulius Caesar. His praenomen is Gaius, and is equivalent to a "first name." Iulius is his nomen, and tells which "gens" or tribe he belonged to, in this case the Iulia. And his cognomen is his personal last name, which is what he was known by in public life. There are a bunch of other names that were also used (why keep anything simple), but it's important to note that women, generally, did not have three part names, and were known by their fathers' gens names, feminized, as well as their cognomen (also feminized).

So as "Kiriona" is Maori for "Gideon," it ties Kiriona to her heritage; a gens name telling where she and Jod came from. And "Gaia" is the feminine form of John's "cognomen."

Which stands out first because Kiriona is not particularly feminine, and that could be Muir's attempt to give her that connection (which might have been harder otherwise since she's a prince now), but because her name is also the only one that follows Roman naming conventions, it ties her to him in entirety. It's not just that she's John's daughter, it's that she has no identity outside him now; she is him. A piece of him more than a full version of herself.