[2][3] The praenomen was used by both patrician and plebeian families, and gave rise to the patronymic gentes Lucia and Lucilia.
[4] It was regularly abbreviated L.[5][6] Throughout Roman history, Lucius was the most common praenomen, used slightly more than Gaius and somewhat more than Marcus.
[8] The name survived the collapse of the Western Empire in the fifth century, and has continued into modern times.
In the treatise De Praenominibus (Concerning Praenomina), of uncertain authorship, Lucius is said to have been derived from lux, light, and is supposed originally to have been given to children who were born at dawn.
[2][11][1] Chase connects the name with the archaic adjective loucus, which meant "bright" or "shining", although by the classical period it had come to refer to a cleared grove.