GreekMythology3 syllables
Meaning: unknown — the name of a god, and one of the few Greek divine names nobody has managed to explain.
Apollo
| Origin | Greek — Ἀπόλλων, Apollōn, in Doric Apellōn; taken into Latin unchanged as Apollo |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Genuinely unresolved. Proposals include Doric apella (assembly), the Anatolian god Appaliunas, and apollymi (to destroy). None is accepted; the ancient Greeks were already guessing |
| Pronunciation | uh-POL-oh, stress on the middle syllable. Greek put it on the last: a-po-LLON |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and still uncommon, though far less startling than it was a generation ago |
| Variants | Apollon (Greek), Apolo (Spanish), Apollos (the New Testament figure of Acts 18), Apollonius, Apollinaire |
| Nicknames | Apo, Polo, Lo |
| Namesakes | NASA's Apollo programme, which landed men on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, and Harlem's Apollo Theater |
History & meaning
Most name books will hand you a meaning for Apollo. Do not trust them. The god's name resists etymology in a way that Zeus, Hera and Poseidon do not: linguists have proposed the Doric apella, the assembly of citizens, an Anatolian source in the Hittite Appaliunas, and the verb apollymi, to destroy, which is the pun Aeschylus makes in the Agamemnon. Plato's Cratylus runs through four more guesses. That the ancients were already speculating is the clearest sign the word was old and opaque even to them, and quite possibly not Greek at all.
What is not in doubt is who he was. Son of Zeus and Leto, twin of Artemis, born on Delos; god of prophecy through the oracle at Delphi, of the lyre, of archery, of healing and of the plague he could send instead. His standing epithet was Phoibos, bright or pure, which is where the association with radiance comes from, and only later writers merged him with Helios and made him drive the sun. Rome took him over without translating the name, an honour it gave to almost no other Greek god, and Augustus made him a patron of the new empire.
Why parents choose it
It is the rare mythological name that arrives with two separate lives attached: the Delphic god and the spacecraft. The second does a lot of quiet work, because it gives the name a twentieth-century, American, unmistakably heroic reference that softens the mythology. Three open syllables and a warm ending keep it from sounding as grand as it is, and Polo or Lo is waiting if it ever does.
Middle names for Apollo
A first name this decorated is best served by a plain one after it: Apollo James, Apollo Reid, Apollo Vincent, Apollo Grant. Resist a second mythological name in the middle slot, a temptation the middle names guide warns about at length.
Famous Apollos
The speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, whose parents used the one-L spelling, won eight Olympic medals in short track and is the most decorated American in Winter Games history. Apollo Robbins is an American sleight-of-hand artist whose pickpocketing demonstrations have been studied by neuroscientists. Apollo Creed, worth naming only because everyone thinks of him, is fictional.
Consider instead
Atlas takes the same Greek myth in a blunter, one-word direction. Evander is Greek myth at a much lower volume. Zephyr keeps the divine register but trades archery and prophecy for the west wind.