They did not do that to show respect to them like a totemist as someone just guessed so from book reading. From Wordnik.com. Reference
Roman names of families and old Italian tribe-names are still often quoted as totemistic; but the Fabii and Caepiones, named after cultivated plants, and the Picentes and Hirpini, after woodpecker and wolf, though tempting to the totemist, have not persuaded Dr. Frazer to accept them as totemistic, and may be left out of account here; there may be many reasons for the adoption of such names besides the totemistic one. From Wordnik.com. [The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus] Reference
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