Of Latin origin.
From the Roman family name “Lucianus”. Derived from “Lucius”, also an ancient Roman name.
All of these names originate from the Latin word “lux”, meaning “light”.
The name became known due to the fame of the 2nd c. AD Greek rhetorician and satirist Lucian of Samosata.
Other forms of the name are Lucien, Luciano, Lukianos, Luken, Lucan.
Names’ rankings: #48 in Romania (2009), #626 in the U.S.A. (2016).
Famous bearers are Lucian Freud, Lucian Pintilie, Lucian Blaga, Lucian Msamati.
Additional information concerning the Ancient Roman naming system:
According to the Roman naming rules, the basic elements of Roman names were three. A “praenomen”, a “nomen”, and a “cognomen”.
A “praenomen” was the first name, indicating the personal name.
A “nomen” was the second name, indicating the ‘gens’ to which the bearer of the name belonged to. Gens, meaning the group of families sharing a common “nomen”.
“Nomen” would stand as the group of loosely connected families claiming common ancestors. “Nomen” were always patrilinear, meaning from the father.
A “cognomen” was the third name and was something like the surname. Cognomina (plural of cognomen) were usually inherited. They were rarely given to the bearer by general consensus by the prominent members of the community.
There were several types of “cognomina”, such as geographical, adoptive, occupational, etc. In very rare cases the “cognomina” could be metronymic, meaning from the mother’s “nomen”.