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In [[ancient Rome]] the '''''dies lustricus''''' ("day of [[Lustratio|lustration]]" or "purification day") was a traditional [[naming ceremony]] in which an infant was purified and given a ''[[praenomen]]'' ([[given name]]). This occurred on the eighth day for girls and the ninth day for boys, a difference [[Plutarch]] explains by noting that "it is a fact that the female grows up, and attains maturity and perfection before the male."<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Roman Questions'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/E.html#ref233 102.]</ref> Until the umbilical cord fell off, typically on the seventh day, the baby was regarded as "more like a plant than an animal," as Plutarch expresses it.{{Efn|See also [[Aulus Gellius]], ''Attic Nights'' 16.16, citing Varro in saying that in the womb children are more like trees than a human being.}} The ceremony of the ''dies lustricus'' was thus postponed until the last tangible connection to the mother's body was dissolved and the child was seen "as no longer forming part of the mother, and in this way as possessing an independent existence which justified its receiving a name of its own and therefore a fate of its own."<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," p. 242.</ref> The day was celebrated with a family feast.<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," p. 251.</ref> The [[List of Roman birth and childhood deities|childhood goddess]] [[Nundina]] presided over the [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#dies lustricus|event]],<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' 1.16.36.</ref> and the goddess [[Nona (mythology)|Nona]] was supposed to determine a person's lifespan.<ref>S. Breemer and J. H. Waszinsk ''Mnemosyne'' 3 Ser. 13, 1947, pp. 254–270: on personal destiny as linked to the collation of the ''dies lustricus''.</ref> Prior to the ceremony infants were not considered part of the household, even if their father had raised them up during a ''[[tollere liberum]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Childhood, Class and Kin in the Roman World|last=Dixon|first=Suzanne|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=9781134563197|pages=78}}</ref>
On the ''dies lustricus'', the ''Fata Scribunda'' were invoked.<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," p. 248.</ref> The "Written Fates" probably refers to a ceremonial writing down of the child's new name, perhaps in a family chronicle.<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," p. 251.</ref> To the Romans, the giving of a name was as important as being born. The receiving of a ''praenomen'' inaugurated the child as an individual with its own fate.<ref>Breemer and Waszink, "Fata Scribunda," pp. 245, 250.</ref> A child's name may have been decided on before hand in the preceding days.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World: 'A Fragment of Time'|last=Carroll|first=Maureen|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=9780192524348|pages=?}}</ref> In rare instances children were given names before the ceremony or posthumously, for example one child named Simplicius is recorded to have died the same day as he was born, possibly only living an hour.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World: 'A Fragment of Time'|last=Carroll|first=Maureen|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=9780192524348|pages=??}}</ref> Often when a boy was commemorated despite dying before their name giving they are recorded only with their family [[Nomen (ancient Rome)|nomen]] and possibly a [[cognomen]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Greek and Latin Inscriptions on Stone in the Collections of Charles University |last=Marek |first=Václav |publisher=Univerzita Karlova |year=1977 |pages=61}}</ref> In the past some historians such as [[Theodor Mommsen]] believed that
The day may also have been when the child received the ''[[bulla (amulet)|bulla]]'', the protective amulet that was put aside when a [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Rites of passage|boy passed into adulthood]].<ref>Jens-Uwe Krause, "Children in the Roman Family and Beyond," in ''The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World'' (Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 627.</ref> The practice was widespread in the [[Western Roman Empire]] into [[late antiquity]]. This tradition was familiar to Christians as well who seem to have incorporated parts of it into their own lives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World: A Social and Cultural History|last=Laes|first=Christian|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018|isbn=9781107162907|pages=33}}</ref>
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