Very few family names ever evolve into official government titles. Even the title "Augustus" was voted to Octavian Caesar by the senate, meaning "fortuitous", "majestic", or just plain old "great". Caesar, however, was simply a cognomen or third name in the typical three name convention that the Romans commonly used. In the case of Julius Caesar, his full name consisted of his praenomen, Gaius, his nomen, indicating his clan, Julius, and his cognomen, indicating what particular branch of the clan, in this case, Caesar. All of the so called Julio-Claudian emperors carried the cognomen Caesar, ensuring that for about a century, the highest officer in the Roman government carried the name Caesar. This naming convention continued beyond the Julio-Claudian dynasty, eventually morphing into an official title used to designate the heir apparent to the office of emperor. Under Diocletian, the title would evolve to refer to the junior emperors of the tetrarchy. The title would survive the fall of Rome in the west and eventually be used to refer to the German Holy Roman Emperor in the title, "Kaiser" and to refer to the Russian Emperor as "Tsar".

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