The most famous member of the gens was Lucius Sextius Lateranus, who as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of the annual magistrates, until the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, otherwise known as the "Licinian Rogations," in the latter year.
[1][2] The nomen Sextius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Sextus, meaning "sixth".
[3] It is frequently confounded with that of the patrician gens Sestia,[1] and in fact the two families may originally have been the same; however, Roman authors treated them as distinct gentes.
[3] The main praenomina of the early Sextii were Marcus, Lucius, and Gaius, the most common names throughout all periods of Roman history.
Epigraphy provides instances of Vibius, a name that was also used by the patrician Sestii, supporting the theory of a common origin.