> His praenomen (first name) is unknown;[21] his cognomen Pilatus might mean "skilled with the javelin (pilum)", but it could also refer to the pileus or Phrygian cap, possibly indicating that one of Pilate's ancestors was a freedman.[22] If it means "skilled with the javelin", it is possible that Pilate won the cognomen for himself while serving in the Roman military;[20] it is also possible that his father acquired the cognomen through military skill.[23] In the Gospels of Mark and John, Pilate is only called by his cognomen, which Marie-Joseph Ollivier takes to mean that this was the name by which he was generally known in common speech.[24] The name Pontius suggests that an ancestor of his came from Samnium in central, southern Italy, and he may have belonged to the family of Gavius Pontius and Pontius Telesinus, two leaders of the Samnites in the third and first centuries BC, respectively, before their full incorporation to the Roman Republic.[25] Like all but one other governor of Judaea, Pilate was of the equestrian order, a middle rank of the Roman nobility.[26] As one of the attested Pontii, Pontius Aquila (an assassin of Julius Caesar) was a tribune of the plebs; the family must have originally been of plebeian origin and later became ennobled as equestrians.
> His praenomen (first name) is unknown;[21] his cognomen Pilatus might mean "skilled with the javelin (pilum)", but it could also refer to the pileus or Phrygian cap, possibly indicating that one of Pilate's ancestors was a freedman.[22] If it means "skilled with the javelin", it is possible that Pilate won the cognomen for himself while serving in the Roman military;[20] it is also possible that his father acquired the cognomen through military skill.[23] In the Gospels of Mark and John, Pilate is only called by his cognomen, which Marie-Joseph Ollivier takes to mean that this was the name by which he was generally known in common speech.[24] The name Pontius suggests that an ancestor of his came from Samnium in central, southern Italy, and he may have belonged to the family of Gavius Pontius and Pontius Telesinus, two leaders of the Samnites in the third and first centuries BC, respectively, before their full incorporation to the Roman Republic.[25] Like all but one other governor of Judaea, Pilate was of the equestrian order, a middle rank of the Roman nobility.[26] As one of the attested Pontii, Pontius Aquila (an assassin of Julius Caesar) was a tribune of the plebs; the family must have originally been of plebeian origin and later became ennobled as equestrians.