Although "Numerius" was occasionally used by patrician gentes, such as the Furii and the Valerii, the only patrician family to use the name regularly was the gens Fabia. Festus relates the story of how "Numerius" was introduced to the family after a survivor of the Battle of the Cremera married a daughter of Numerius Otacilius of Maleventum. The name was used more widely amongst the plebeians and in the countryside, and was relatively common in southern Italy. In Roman law, the name "Numerius Negidius" was used to refer to a hypothetical defendant.