Here's some information I've pulled together from various sources. It's a pity Velut Luna's not about, she did a lot of research on Roman prostitutes, especially in Pompeii, while we were working on 'Amica'.
Prostitutes in ancient Rome ranged very widely, from aristocratic courtesans, concubines and ‘kept women’ through to wretched paupers and slavegirls in brothels. Sex-workers in public brothels had to be registered and licensed by the Ædiles, civic officials, who recorded both their ‘real’ names and their trade-names, probably given them by their brothel-keepers. Once registered as a meretrix (‘earner’), a girl could never have her name deleted. Although there seems to be no single ‘typical’ whore-name, many of the nicknames were pretty obvious – for example Novellia ‘fresh, young’, Epulia ‘like a feast, tasty’, advertised themselves with graffiti in Pompeii.
Some nicknames refer, not always very politely, to appearance: Eburnea ‘ivory’ sounds attractive, Sila ‘snub-nose’ perhaps just cute, Nuda – well, say no more! Character could range from Venatrix ‘huntress’ to Saga ‘witch’, but Deliciae (sic) ‘darling, sweetheart’ is more obvious.
Words for animals were popular, those of athletic, graceful creatures weren’t necessarily reserved to prostitiutes – Dorcas ‘gazelle’ and Damaris ‘heifer’ are both respectable ladies in the Acts of the Apostles, though these names were also used by courtesans. Others suggest varied characters – Leæna ‘lioness’ sounds exciting, Cerva ‘doe, hind’ (like Dorcas already mentioned) graceful and athletic, Philomela ‘nightingale’ or Hirundo ‘swallow’ more romantic, Passer ‘sparrow’ a cocky wee lass, but Canis ‘dog, bitch’, and certainly Lupa ‘she-wolf’ would have been nasty labels to be stuck with (lupa was a slang word for a whore in general, but used as a personal nickname for some); Rana ‘frog’, Cochlea ‘snail’, and Culex ‘gnat’ sound pretty rude too, all of these probably had double meanings.
Such double meanings or heavy hints are more or less obvious in names like Fava ‘honeycomb’, Patella ‘little dish’ (cf. Epulia already mentioned), Alvea ‘kneading-trough’, Pila ‘mortar’ (as in ‘pestle and’), Scapha ‘skiff, small boat’, Lucatrix ‘wrestler’ (and even Palaestra, ‘wrestling ground’), and Vigilia ‘night-watch’ carries an obvious message.
Diminutives were very popular. Animals include Vitula ‘calf, young heifer’, Lepuscula ‘little hare, leveret’. Facula ‘little firebrand’ is a nice one, Viticula ‘little vine’ – perhaps clingy? Bacula ‘little kiss’ and Lingula ‘little tongue’ quite explicit, Pupilla ‘little girl, doll’ probably all too close to the truth.
