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Greetings,
Here's the information we found for you. Since we've established that your original name "Xavius" is not a historical name, we've included some corrections to information you got and information on how non-Romans were given Roman names.
The bulk of this letter is taken from two posting by Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn; other contributors are listed at the end.
Roman names traditionally consisted of three names: a praenomen (roughly "given name", although very different in some ways from that concept), a nomen ("family name"), and a cognomen (usually indicating the sub-branch of the family).
There was a very short list of available praenomina, and any particular family tended to use only a small subset even of those. For a very accurate re-creation, it would be best to determine what family you wish to belong to and then research which praenomina were used by that family. We have found the following praenomina:
Appius, Aulus, Decimus, Gaius, Gnaeus, Kaeso, Lucius, Mamercus, Manius, Marcus, Numerius, Publius, Quintus, Servius, Sextus, Spurius, Tiberius, and Titus.
The nomen indicates the family or tribe (gens). The oldest of these all ended in "-ius" (e.g. Claudius, Cornelius, Iulius, Aelius, Sergius, etc.). Newer nomina often had other endings, based on their origin:
"Other endings [than "-ius"] point to a non-Latin origin of the gens [i.e., family/tribe]. Those in "-acus" (Avidiacus) are Gallic, those in "-na" (Caecina) are Etruscan, those in "-enus" or "-ienus" (Salvidienus) are Umbrian or Picene. Some others are formed from the name of the town from which the family sprang, either with the regular terminations "-anus" and "-ensis" (Albanus, Norbanus, Aquiliensis), or with the suffix "-ius" (Perusius, Parmensius) in imitation of the older and more aristocratic use." (1)
These nomina would be used by families who were Romanized fairly early. Later, individuals became Roman citizens either through being enslaved and freed, or through military service in an auxiliary unit. These names followed other conventions.
"The freedman regularly kept the individual name which he had had as a slave, and was given the nomen of his master with any praenomen the latter assigned him. Thus, Andronicus, the slave of Marcus Livius Salinator, became when freed "Lucius Livius Andronicus", the individual name coming last as a sort of cognomen.
"When a foreigner was given the right of citizenship, he took a new name, which was arranged on much the same principles as have been explained in the cases of freedmen. His original name was retained as a sort of cognomen, and before it were written the praenomen that suited his fancy and the nomen of the person, always a Roman citizen, to whom he owed his citizenship. The most familiar example is that of the Greek poet Archias, whom Cicero defended under the name of "Aulus Licinius Archias" in the well-known oration. He had long been attached to the family of the Luculli and when he was made a citizen took as his nomen that of his distinguished patron Lucius Licinius Lucullus; we do not know why he selected the first name Aulus. Another example is that of the Gaul mentioned by Caesar, "Gaius Valerius Caburus". He took his name from Caius Valerius Flaccus, the governor of Gaul at the time that he was given his citizenship. It is to this custom of taking the names of governors and generals that is due the frequent occurrence of the name Julius in Gaul, Pompeius in Spain, and Cornelius in Sicily."
Originally, the cognomen indicated a sub-branch of the _gens_, and similarly belonged to a restricted class of elements. I.e., you might find the branches Cornelius Scipio, Cornelius Rufus, Cornelius Lentulus and the branches Flavius Martinus, Flavius Victor but that doesn't necessarily mean that "Cornelius Martinus" would be a historic possibility when this system was in action. But although it became instituted as a part of the "family name" portion of the name, the cognomina generally originated as personal nicknames (of the founder of that branch) and thus became confused with (and supplemented by) actual personal nicknames, which normally would follow the cognomen.
In addition to these three elements, when a man's name was written out formally, it often included a patronym. So, for example, the famous Cicero might have as the formal version of his name "Marcus Tullius Marci filius (optional reference to grandfather and great-grandfather) Cicero". This breaks down as:
However, this system broke down in various ways during the imperial period. The pool of praenomina for any given family tended to shrink even more. With the rise of new families from more humble origins, new nomina were constructed, often from their town of origin. And cognomina multiplied sometimes to ridiculous extents. In addition to the family cognomen (or sometimes more than one, if a subfamily had broken further into sub-sub-families), it became more the fashion to take -- or be given -- personal nicknames. Being legally adopted as someone's heir added to the profusion, as the adoptee would take his new "father"'s full name and add his old nomen with the adjectival suffix "-anus" (e.g. Aemilius > Aemilianus). Occasionally multiple praenomina were given.
This last development is the origin of "Julian," which derives from "Julianus," a name for someone adopted into the gens Julius.
Even more interesting things were going on among the lower classes, where the distinction between different types of names broke down entirely, and by the late empire we find praenomina, nomina, and cognomina all being used as we would understand "given names" to be.
A good history of Rome will generally have lots of examples of name elements in the index -- even giving an idea of what nomen-cognomen combinations were standard. For the more adventurous, it is fairly easy to find indexes of name elements appearing in inscriptions, e.g. Solin & Salomies' "Repertorium Nominum Gentilium et Cognominum Latinorum" or the "Corpus Inscriptionem Latinorum" appearing in multiple volumes (but with an index!).
Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn wrote most of this letter; Arval D'Espas Nord, Lindorm Eriksson, and Talan Gwynek also contributed.
We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.
In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel