The study of ancient Greek personal names is a branch of onomastics, the study of names,E. Eichler and others, Namenforschung, 3 vols., 1995 and more specifically of anthroponomastics, the study of names of persons. There are hundreds of thousands and even millions of individuals whose Greek name are on record; they are thus an important resource for any general study of naming, as well as for the study of ancient Greece itself. The names are found in literary texts, on coins and stamped amphora handles, on potsherds used in ostracisms, and, much more abundantly, in inscriptions and (in Egypt) on papyri. This article will concentrate on Greek naming from the 8th century BC, when the evidence begins, to the end of the 6th century AD.O. Masson, 'Les noms propres d'homme en grec ancien', in E. Eichler and others, Namenforschung, vol. I (1995), 706-710
Single names and names within families
Ancient Greeks usually had one name, but another element was often added in semi-official contexts or to aid identification: a father's name (patronym) in the genitive case, or some regions as an adjectival formulation. A third element might be added, indicating the individual's membership in a particular kinship or other grouping, or city of origin (when the person in question was away from that city). Thus the orator Demosthenes, while proposing decrees in the Athenian assembly, was known as "Demosthenes, son of Demosthenes of Paiania"; Paiania was the deme or regional sub-unit of Attica to which he belonged by birth. In some rare occasions, if a person was illegitimate or fathered by a non-citizen, they might use their mother's name (metronym) instead of their father's. Ten days after birth, relatives on both sides were invited to a sacrifice and feast called dekátē (), "tenth day"; on this occasion the father formally named the child.N. Dunbar, Aristophanes, Birds (1995), 339.
Demosthenes was unusual in bearing the same name as his father; it was more common for names to alternate between generations or between lines of a family. Thus it was common to name a first son after his paternal grandfather, and the second after the maternal grandfather, great-uncle, or great-aunt. A speaker in a Greek court case explained that he had named his four children after, respectively, his father, the father of his wife, a relative of his wife, and the father of his mother.Speech against Makartatos, ascribed to Demosthenes, sect. 74 (translated by A. T. Murray) Perseus Digital Library Alternatively, family members might adopt variants of the same name, such as "Demippos, son of Demotimos". The practice of naming children after their grandparents is still widely practiced in Greece today.
This article uses names written in Romanized form. For example the Greek name Δημόκριτος is written in the form Demokritos (meaning "chosen of the people"). But this same name is normally written as Democritus in the Latin spelling which is the standard used in modern literature.
Naming women
In many contexts, etiquette required that respectable women be spoken of as the wife or daughter of X rather than by their names. On gravestones or dedications, however, they had to be identified by name. Here, the patronymic formula "son of X" used for men might be replaced by "wife of X", or supplemented as "daughter of X, wife of Y".
Many women bore forms of standard masculine names, with a feminine ending substituted for the masculine. Many standard names related to specific masculine achievements had a common feminine equivalent; the counterpart of Kallimachos "noble battle" or "fair in battle" would be Kallimachē; likewise Stratonikos "army victory" would correspond to Stratonikē. The taste mentioned above for giving family members related names was one motive for the creation of such feminine forms. There were also feminine names with no masculine equivalent, such as Glykera "sweet one"; Hedistē "most delightful", Kalliopē, "beautiful-voiced".
Another distinctive way of forming feminine names was the neuter diminutive suffix -ion (-ιον, while the masculine corresponding suffix was -ιων), suggesting the idea of a "little thing": e.g., Aristion from aristos "best"; Mikrion from mikros "small". Perhaps by extension of this usage, women's names were sometimes formed from men's by a change to a neuter ending without the diminutive sense: Hilaron from hilaros, "cheerful".
Formation
There were five main personal name types in Greece:
Compound names Demosthenes is compounded from two ordinary Greek roots (a structure at least as old as Proto-Indo-European): demos "people" and sthenos "strength". A vast number of Greek names have this form, being compounded from two recognizable (though sometimes shortened) elements: Nikomachos from nike "victory" and mache "battle", Sophokles from sophos "wise, skilled" and kleos "glory", Polykrates from poly "much" and kratos "power". The elements used in these compounds are typically positive and of good omen, stressing such ideas as beauty, strength, bravery, victory, glory, and horsemanship. The order of the elements was often reversible: aristos and kleos give both Aristokles and Klearistos.
Such compounds have a more or less clear meaning. It was already noted by Aristotle,Aristotle, Poetics 1457a 12-14 (translated by W. H. Fyfe) Perseus Digital Library that two elements could be brought together in illogical ways. Thus the immensely productive hippos "horse" yielded, among hundreds of compounds, not only meaningful ones such as Philippos "lover of horses" and Hippodamas "horse-tamer", but also Xenippos "stranger horse" and Andrippos "man horse" and Hippias (likely just meaning "horse"). There were, in turn, numerous other names beginning with Xen- and Andr-. These "irrational" compounds arose through a combination of common elements.O. Masson, Onomastica Graeca Selecta, ed. C. Dobias and L. Dubois (1990), 88 and 404. One motive was a tendency for members of the same family to receive names that echoed one another without being identical. Thus we meet Demippos, son of Demotimos, where the son's name is irrational ("people horse") and the father's name meaningful ("people honour", i.e., honored among the people).
A very common element found in Greek names was also the root Eu-, from eus meaning "well" or "good". This is found in names such as Eumenes "good mind", and Euphemos "good reputation". Similar looking prefixes include Eury- "wide", as in Eurydike "wide justice", and also Euthy- "straight" as in Euthymenes, "straight mind". Some of the most famous compound names were also created using the word Andros "man", such as Anaxandros "lord man", Lysandros "liberating man", Alexandros "defending man". The other forms include Androkles "man glory" (or "glorious man"), Andromachos "man battle" (or probably "man of battle") and Nikanor "victory man". Another recurring element is Lys-, from lysis "releasing", found in names such as Lysimachos "liberating battle", Lysanias "releasing from sorrow", and Lysias "release" or "liberation". The root Phil-, originating from the word philos "loving", was also used widely among Greeks, and found in names such as Philoxenos "lover of strangers" and Philetairos "lover of companions".
Shortened names A second major category of names was shortened versions ("hypocoristics," or in German Kosenamen) of the compounded names. Thus alongside the many names beginning with Kall- "beauty" such as Kallinikos "of fair victory", there are shortened Kallias and Kallon (masculine) or Kallis (feminine). Alongside victory names such as Nikostratos "victory army", there are Nikias and Nikon (masculine) or Niko (feminine). Such shortenings were variously formed and very numerous: more than 250 shortenings of names in Phil(l)- ("love") and related roots have been counted.
Simple names Ordinary nouns and adjectives of the most diverse types were used as names, either unadjusted or with the addition of a wide variety of suffixes. For instance, some twenty different names are formed from aischros "ugly", including that of the poet we know as Aeschylus, the Latin spelling of Aischylos. Among the many different categories of nouns and adjectives from which the most common names derive are colors (Xanthos "yellow"), animals (Moschos "heifer", and Dorkas "roe deer"), physical characteristics (Simos "snub nose"; Strabon "squinty-eyed"), parts of the body (Kephalos, from kephale "head", and many from various slang terms for genitalia). Few of these simple names are as common as the most common compound names, but they are extraordinarily numerous and varied. Identifying their origins often taxes the knowledge of the outer reaches of Greek vocabulary.J. Curbera, 'Simple Names in Ionia', in R. Parker (ed.), Personal Names in Ancient Anatolia (2013), 107-144. Here the quest for dignity seen in the compound names largely disappears. Some, to our ears, sound positively disrespectful: Gastron "pot belly", Batrachos "frog", Kopreus "shitty", but these are probably by origin affectionate nicknames, in many cases applied to small children, and subsequently carried on within families.
Theophoric ("god-carrying") names Many Greeks bore names derived from those of gods. However, it was not normal before the Roman period for Greeks to bear exactly the same names as gods, but they did use adjectival forms of Divine names. For example Dionysios "belonging to Dionysos" and Demetrios "belonging to Demeter" (feminine forms Dionysia and Demetria) were the most common such names in ancient times.
There were also compound theophoric names, formed with a wide variety of suffixes, of which the most common were -doros "gift of" (e.g. Athenodoros "gift of Athena") or -dotos "given by" (e.g. Apollodotos "given by Apollo"). Many names were also based on cult titles of gods: Pythodoros "gift of Pythios", i.e. Apollo. Other less common suffixes were -phon "voice of" (e.g. Dionysophon "voice of Dionysos") and -phanes "appearing" (e.g. Diophanes, "Zeus appearing" or "looking like Zeus"). Also common were names formed from the simple theos "god", such as Theodoros, or the feminine form Theodora. All the major gods except the god of war, Ares, and gods associated with the underworld (Persephone, Hades, Plouton [=Latin Pluto]) generated theophoric names, as did some lesser gods (rivers in particular) and heroes. When new gods rose to prominence (Asklepios) or entered Greece from outside (Isis, Sarapis), they too generated theophoric names formed in the normal ways (e.g. Asklepiodotos, Isidoros, Sarapias).R. Parker, 'Theophoric Names and the History of Greek Religion', in S. Hornblower and E. Matthews (eds.), Greek Personal Names. Their Value as Evidence (2000) Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 104, pp. 53-80
Lallnamen This is the German word used for names that derived not from other words but from the sounds made by little children addressing their relatives. Typically, they involve repeated consonants or syllables (like English Dada, Nana)—examples are Nanna and Papas. They grew hugely in frequency from a low base in the Roman period, probably through the influence of other naming traditions such as Phrygian, in which such names were very common.
Suffixes Many Greeks names used distinctive suffixes that conveyed additional meaning. The suffix -ides (idas in Doric areas such as Sparta) indicates patrilineal descent, and usually means "descendant of", but in some cases can also mean "son of". For example Eurycratides means "descendant of Eurycrates", while Leonidas means "descendant of Leon", as in Leon of Sparta, but literally may also mean "son of a lion", since the name Leon means "lion" in Greek. Greeks often used this suffix when naming their sons after prominent ancestors like grandfathers and so on. The diminutive suffix -ion was also common, e.g. Hephaestion ("little Hephaestus").
History