The third name or cognomen, that of Cicero, belonged to a branch of the family of Tullius.
This third name had generally its origin, as do so many of our surnames, in some specialty of place, or trade, or chance circumstance.

It was said that an ancestor had been called Cicero from "cicer," a vetch, because his nose was marked with the figure of that vegetable.

It is more probable that the family prospered by the growing and sale of vetches.

Be that as it may, the name had been well established before the orator's time.

Cicero's mother was one Helvia, of whom we are told that she was well-born and rich.