Although Napoleon was the model of a man who rose from humble beginnings and was a harbinger of the modern era, he styled himself as a one of Europe's crowned heads. Or, to paraphrase H. G. Wells, instead of being father to a new world, Napoleon chose to be son-in-law to the old. Napoleon's self-crowning as emperor meant the French state dropped references to Bonaparte and referred to him as Napoleon. Much like how his crowned contemporaries of Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia were known by their first names (George, Francis, Alexander, and Frederick William respectively) and a numeral, Napoleon termed himself Napoleon I. Despite the fact that Napoleon often emphasized how he rose to Emperor on his own talents, his status as a coming from a provincial Corsican noble family did make it hard to equate the Bonapartes' with the same level of prestige as a Habsburg or a Romanov. There was a notable effort to connect the Bonaparte family to the Merovingians and to Charlemagne. There also an attempt by the French state to elevate Emperor's divine namesake, the Saint Napoleon, into a major feast day in the Catholic liturgical calendar. Even though Saint Neopolus was an incredibly minor and obscure Egyptian martyr, Napoleon elevated to a level equivalent to major saints in Catholic theology. This was mostly an expression of dominance and control over church affairs, but trying to enhance the importance of the name Napoleon does speak to Napoleon's parvenu status among other crowned heads of his age.
A question previously asked on reddit.