[2] With medieval writers, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, whose works circulated around many countries, geographical cognomens sometimes served to distinguish better than "son of," "ben" or "ibn."
Roman Military commanders often took a second cognomen, an agnomen, recalling a victorious campaign: Africanus, Asiaticus, Macedonicus, Numantinus.
Examples in formation of patrial names include: 1. definite article and noun - using a demonym (also called gentile name or gentilic, from Latin nomen gentile or gentilicium) 2. unclear: indefinite noun / adjectival forms 3. adjectives - a common Latin method for making a toponymic adjective is to add -[i]ensis 4. genitive "of" constructions In examples 1 through 3, where the noun or adjective has case declension the partial name will typically decline in accordance with normal noun or adjective rules.
The declension is normally not followed when citing Latin patrial names in English, "of Giraldus Cambrensis," but may cause confusion when trying to identify the nominative spellings of patrial names from Latin or Greek sources.
Modern era examples in Europe are generally limited to nicknames, or deliberate choices of a birthplace as a penname or stagename or change of name by deed poll: