cognomina See {cognomen} cognomen n 1: a familiar name for a person (often a shortened version of a person's given name); "Joe's mother would not use his nickname and always called him Joseph"; "Henry's nickname was Slim" [syn: {nickname}, {moniker}, {sobriquet}, {soubriquet}] 2: the name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name) [syn: {surname}, {family name}, {last name}] [also: {cognomina} (pl)]