 In the later empire, members of the Roman aristocracy used several different schemes of assuming and inheriting nomina and cognomina, both to signify their rank, and to indicate their family and social connections.Some Romans came to be known by alternative names, or "signia", and due to the lack of surviving epigraphic evidence, the full nomenclature of most Romans, even among the aristocracy, is seldom recorded.Thus, although the three types of names referred to as the "tria nomina" existed throughout Roman history, the period during which the majority of citizens possessed exactly three names was relatively brief.