The first member of the gens to obtain the consulship was Lucius Ceionius Commodus in AD 78.
The historian Aelius Spartianus wrote that they came from Etruria, or perhaps from the town of Faventia, which was itself of Etruscan origin.
The most illustrious family of the Ceionii bore the cognomen Commodus, meaning "friendly, obliging," or "pleasant."
Many other surnames occur, some of which were ordinary cognomina, such as Rufus, meaning "red" or "reddish," or Bassus, "stout".
[1] Postumus, a surname belonging to the father of the emperor Albinus, is derived from the praenomen Postumus, referring to a youngest child, although a popular false etymology derived it from post humus, "after burial", meaning a child born after his father's death.