I don't think it explicitly says it anywhere in 5th Ed canon, but it seems implied that before Hermetic Magic was invented it was dangerous for cult of Mercury descended wizards to reveal their true names.
Hence most of the names of the Founders were magical stage names. But presumably they weren't random syllables, but had meanings for the wizard that chose them.
Bonisagus is the "good wise sage" Trianoma is the "thrice named" Flambeau is to indicate his fire based attitude Jerbiton is a place name, apparently where Flavius of Jerbiton was originally from. Mercere was a mercurial travellor Tremere wanted to make people tremerous (fearful) Tytalus was the Titan's playing piece (talus) Verditus was possibly a smithing reference to the green patina on copper and bronze
But what of the other Roman Founders' names? Criamon Guernicus Merinita Pralix
What would these names represent? Possibly like that of Tytalus it could be a abbreviated/corrupted Latin pun/phrase.
I lack the Latin skills to research this, though I thought Pralix might be a combination of "prae-" ("before", "in front", or even "because of") and "lix", and wiktionary implies there is a couple of possible meanings to "lix", it could be from the same root meaning as "liquid", or it could be the 3rd declension of the noun meaning "lye, ashes".
Since Pralix was originally the apprentice of Guorna the Foetid, is it possible her name means "before ashes", as a reference to the disposal of corpses, and necromancy?
Then again, I should probably add Guorna to the list of names to be researched. But this would lead into looking at the names of all the apprentices of the Founders.
Marinatha appears in the Apostolic books of the bible and apparently means something along the lines of "our lord cometh", Merinita could mean little merin, but Merin appears to be a Girl's name meaning origin or popularity. It could have been an oblique reference to Merlin (little merlin?)
Guernicus may refer to Guernica, a city in Basque, but also the title of a mural done by Picasso in black, white, and grey implying that the Guenricae mages see things in black and white. Alternately it could be a Romanized name based on Guerre, meaning war.
Praelix may come from praelia in latin meaning warrior, or Praelius meaning winepress... or any number of other associated words. If you want to assume that prae means pre then I would suggest prae-lux meaning before the light.
Criamon is apparently a last name in use today from a google search, though it may have been simply a variant on "creo man"
It was cut from SoI, but Criamon is Christ Amun or Wolf of Amun. It's deliberately not related to his birth name, as he doesn't want his descendants looking into the cult which trained him.
That raises interesting possibilities.
Part of me wishes to argue that Merinita was supposed to live in a forest close enough to be familiar with Bjornaer in Pomerania. And Jerbiton was near to Constantinople.
And don't forget the age difference. If I recall, Merinita was among the oldest of the Founders, and Jerbiton seemed to be among the younger....
But still,....
Just to confirm, Merinita was definitely of a Latin/Cult of Mercury lineage?
The anointed of Amun, and this is supposed to lead away from his descendants looking into the cult which trained him? Sounds pretty solidly Egyptian or Coptic to me.