[1] By the latter part of the fourth century BC, they had joined the nobiles through the patronage of the Fabii, who supported the successful candidacy of Lucius Fulvius Curvus for the consulship.
[4] The earliest branch of the Fulvii used the praenomina Lucius, Marcus, and Quintus, which they occasionally supplemented with other names, including Gaius, Gnaeus, and Servius.
The Fulvii of the Republic bore a variety of cognomina, including Bambalio, Centumalus, Curvus, Flaccus, Gillo, Nobilior, Paetinus, and Veratius or Neratius.
[1] Curvus, which means "bent" or "crooked," is the first cognomen of the Fulvii to occur in history, and belongs to a large class of surnames derived from a person's physical characteristics.
[10] The slight distortion indicated by Paetus was even considered endearing, and it was an epithet of Venus, with much the same meaning as the modern proverb, "love is blind".
Flaccus, meaning "flabby", or "flop-eared",[17][18] was the name of a prominent family of the Fulvia gens, which first appears in history around the beginning of the First Punic War.