Greek name

Until the late 18th century, almost all Christian Greeks were named for Orthodox saints from the Old and New Testaments and early Christian traditions. With the Modern Greek Enlightenment and the development of Greek nationalism, names of Ancient Greek figures, both deities and mortals, became fashionable, as they remain today.^[1] Byzantine names are also used.

Given names

Male names usually end in -ας, -ης, and -ος, but sometimes ancient forms are also used. Female names almost always end in -α and -η, though a few end in -ώ with -ου being possible.

When Greek names are used in other languages, they are sometimes rendered phonetically (e.g. Eleni for Ἑλένη) and sometimes by their native cognates, e.g. English 'Helen' and French 'Hélène'. In the United States, there are conventional anglicizations of some names that are not otherwise related, e.g. Jimmy/James for Δημήτρης, when in fact James is cognate to Ἰάκωβος Iakovos/Jacobus.

Ancient names

Old (Septuagint) and New Testament names

Early Christian (Byzantine) names

Other

• Lambros (Λάμπρος)

Traditions

Since antiquity, there has been a strong tradition of naming the first son after the paternal grandfather, and the second after the maternal grandfather.^[2] This results in a continuation of names in the family line.

There is a strong clustering of first names by locality according to patron saints, famous churches or monasteries. Examples include the name Spyridon and Spyridoula in Corfu, Gerasimos in Kefalonia, Dionysia and Dionysios in Zakynthos, Andreas and Andriana in Patras, Markella and Markos in the Aegean Islands long under Venetian rule, Savvas among refugees from Asia Minor, Emmanuel (Manolis), Joseph (Sifis), Manousos and Mēnas in Crete, etc.

Surnames

Greek surnames are most commonly patronymics. Occupation-, characteristic- and location/origin-based surnames names also occur. The feminine version of Greek surnames is generally the genitive of the name of the girl's father or the woman's husband'; so, for example, Mr. Yannatos and Mrs. Yannatou.

Because of their codification in the Modern Greek state, surnames have Katharevousa forms even though Katharevousa is no longer the official standard. Thus, the Ancient Greek name Eleutherios forms the Modern Greek proper name Lefteris, and former vernacular practice (prefixing the surname to the proper name) was to call John Eleutherios as Leftero-giannis. The modern practice is to call the same person Giannis Eleftheriou: the proper name is vernacular (and not Ioannis), but the surname is an archaic genitive. Female surnames, are most often in the Katharevousa genitive case of a male name. That is an innovation of the Modern Greek state; Byzantine practice was to form a feminine counterpart of the male surname (e.g. masculine Palaiológos, Byzantine feminine Palaiologína, Modern feminine Palaiológou).^{[3] [4]}

In the past, women would change their surname when married, to that of their husband (again in genitive case) signifying the transfer of "dependence" from the father to the husband. In earlier Modern Greek society, women were named with -aina as a feminine suffix on the husband's first name: for example "Giorgaina" or "Wife of George". Now, a woman's surname does not change upon marriage, but she can use the husband's surname socially. Children usually receive the paternal surname, but some children receive the maternal surname in addition or exclusively.^[5]

In official documents, the father's name in the genitive will be inserted between a person's first and last names. For example, if John Papadopoulos has a daughter named Mary and a son named Andrew, they will be referred to as María Ioánnou Papadopoúlou and Andréas Ioánnou Papadópoulos. When Mary marries George Demetriádes, she may retain her original name or choose to be called María Geōrgíou Demetriádou. If she is widowed, she will revert to her father's patronymic but retain her husband's surname: María Ioánnou Demetriádou.

Some surnames are prefixed with Papa-, indicating descent from a priest: "Papakostas", the "son of Kostas, the priest (papas)". Others, like Archi- and Mastro- signify "boss" and "tradesman" respectively. Prefixes such as Konto-, Makro-, and Chondro-, describe body characteristics, such as "short", "tall/long" and "fat". "Gero-" and "Palaio-" signify "old" or "wise".

Other prefixes include Hadji- which was an honorific deriving from the Arabic Hadj or pilgrimage, and indicate that the person had made a pilgrimage (in the case of Christians to Jerusalem) like "Hatzipanagis", and Kara- which is attributed to the Turkish word for "black" deriving from the Ottoman Empire era^[6][7] such as "Karatasos".

Arvanite and Albanian surnames are also common. Many Arvanite surnames are found in Albania, in the modern Albanian form. For example, the word in Arvanitika for "brave" or "pallikari" (in Greek) being "çanavar" (Turkish canavar meaning "monster") or its shortened form "çavar" was pronounced "tzanavar" or "tzavar" giving birth to Arvanitic family names like "Tzanavaras" and/or "Tzavaras".^[8]

Most Greek patronymic suffixes are diminutives, which vary by region. The most common Hellenic patronymic suffixes are:^[5]

• -akis (-άκης): associated primarily with Crete (except Anogeia) and the Aegean Islands. It indicates diminutive, smallness. The -akis started being used such as Giorgos developing in Giorgakis (young or son of Giorgos). It is mainly believed that it was the Turks that forced the use of the –akis suffix to belittle the Cretan people.

  Examples may include: "Mitsotakis", "Theodorakis" and "Doukakis" among many others.

• -as (-ᾶς): from Macedonia and the Epirus.

  Examples may include: "Melas", "Dimas", "Zorbas", "Moustakas" and "Zappas", among many others. On the other hand, the surname Dukas/Doukas is derived from the Latin title dux.

• -atos (-ᾶτος): (from Cephalonia) suffix of Venetian derivation. This suffix can trace its routes in Veneto, where is still very common (although without the Greek nominative case characteristic -s, as -ato).^[9] This can be explained because of Cephalonia being a part of the Venetian Republic for almost 500 years and as it was the only of the Ionian Islands where Venetian had a wider spread, during and after the Venetian period, with a great number of people adopting Venetian as their first language.^[10]

  Examples may include: "Georgatos", "Cosmatos" and "Manatos", among many others.

• -elis (-έλης) and -ilis (-ιλής): From the Turkish suffixes for agent, possession and origin; common in western Asia Minor, Mytilini, Lemnos and Imbros.

  Examples may include: Myrsilis, Katselis, Papadelis, Manelis

• -allis (-άλλης) and -ellis (-έλλης): are both suffixes deriving especially from the Dodecanese, mainly Rhodes

  Examples may include "Georgallis" and "Kanellis" among many others.

• -idis/-ides and -iadis/iades (-ίδης/-ιάδης): meaning 'son of' or 'descendant of'. The suffix -idis (often transliterated -ides in English and French) is the oldest in use. Zeus, for example, was also referred to as Cronides ("son of Cronus"). -Idis was the most common suffix in Byzantium (Constantinople) around Bithynia and Byzantine Thrace, also used by Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks in the Pontic Alps, northeast Anatolia, Georgia, the former Russian Caucasus region of Kars Oblast and sometimes in Epirus, Corfu and some Aegean islands.

  Examples include: "Stavridis", "Koutoufides", "Angelidis", "Georgiadis", and other surnames ending in "-idis".

• -opoulos (-όπουλος): this suffix, meaning "descendant of", originated from the Peloponnese in the 10th century, but has become very widespread throughout the whole Greece, and due to diaspora in the whole world.

  Examples may include: "Stamatelopoulos", "Papadopoulos", "Gianopoulos" and "Anagnostopoulos" among many others.

• -oglou (-όγλου): a Turkish root (-oğlu, "son of") ending seen in immigrants from Asia Minor.

  Examples may include: "Tsolakoglou", "Ardizoglou" and "Patsatzoglou" among many others.

• -ou (-ου): genitive mainly from Cyprus.

  Examples may include: "Afxentiou", "Economou", "Konstantinou", "Christoforou" and "Gregoriou" among many others.

• -akos (-ᾶκος): mainly from Laconia particularly the Laconian part of the Mani peninsula (Maniots).

  Examples may include: "Xarhakos" and "Kyrgiakos" among many others.

• -eas (-εας): mainly from the Messenian part of the Mani peninsula ( Maniots).

  Examples may include: "Koteas", "Georgeas" and "Charisteas" among many others.

• -tis, -otis (-της, -ώτης): meaning "of" a place the Greek person's ancestors are from.

  Examples may include: "Politis" and "Chiotis" among many others.

• -tzis, -tsis (-τζής, -τσής) and feminine (-τζή, -τσή). Turkish suffix to signify a profession just as English "er" in "worker".

  Examples may include: "Devetzi" and "Kouyioumtzis" among many others.

• -lis (-λής). Turkish suffix for "of" just like Greek suffixes -tis and -otis.

  Examples may include: "Karamanlis" and "Kasdaglis" among many others.

Greek surnames also can indicate different ethnic origins, such as Frangopoulos (Φραγκόπουλος) meaning "Son of a Frank", Persopoulos (Περσόπουλος) meaning "Son of a Persian", Servopoulos (Σερβόπουλος) meaning "Son of a Serb" and Voulgaropoulos (Βουλγαρόπουλος) meaning "Son of a Bulgarian/Bulgar," among many others.

See also

• List of Greek place names
• List of ancient Greek philosophers
• Names of the Greeks
• Onomastics
• Ancient Greek personal names

References

External links

• Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, a Major Research Project of the British Academy, Oxford, contains over 35,000 published Greek names up to the 6th century.
• Greek Name Gender Guesser API

Further reading

• Matthews, Elaine; Hornblower, Simon; Fraser, Peter Marshall, Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, Proceedings of The British Academy (104), Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-726216-3