Greek boy names
Greek names arrive in English in two distinct waves, and they do not mix. One is the church: George, Nicholas, Stephen, Peter — saints' names, carried by the calendar for fifteen centuries. The other is the myth, which sat unused for most of that time and has only recently come back as Atlas, Orion and Apollo. This page keeps the two layers apart, because knowing which one a name belongs to tells you most of what it will sound like on a boy.
Greek names in the U.S. top 100
Greek supplies the fourth-ranked boy name in the country and three more inside the top 35. Note how many are transparent compounds: two ordinary Greek words, welded together and still legible.
- #4TheodoreTHEE-uh-dorGreek
Gift of God, from theos and doron. The highest-placed Greek name in the U.S., and the one with the deepest nickname bench.
- #10LucasLOO-kusGreek via Latin
The Latin spelling of Greek Loukas, the evangelist's name; behind it, "man from Lucania".
- #16Sebastianse-BAS-chunGreek via Latin
From sebastos, venerable — the Greek rendering of Latin augustus — by way of the city of Sebaste.
- #30Alexanderal-ig-ZAN-derGreek
Defender of men, from alexein, to ward off, and aner, man. Attested in Mycenaean Greek centuries before Alexander the Great.
- #33LukeLOOKGreek
Most likely man from Lucania. The physician-evangelist, and the shortest of the four gospel names.
- #67AngelAYN-jel or AHN-helGreek
Messenger, from angelos — an ordinary job title in classical Greek before the Bible gave it wings.
- #68ChristopherKRIS-tuh-furGreek
Christ-bearer. The legend of the giant carrying a child across a river is a story invented to explain the name.
- #73AndrewAN-drooGreek
Manly, brave, from andreios. The first-called apostle, and patron saint of Scotland, Russia and Greece.
- #75AtlasAT-lusGreek
The Titan condemned to hold up the sky. Mercator's book of maps of 1595 took the name, and English has called every such book an atlas since.
- #82TheoTHEE-ohGreek
Gift of God. Cut from Theodore, now ranked in its own right — the two of them together are a substantial slice of the top 100.
Traditional Greek names
The saints' layer. Every one of these entered English through the church rather than through Homer, and every one still owns a fixed date on the Orthodox calendar.
- GeorgeJORJGreek
Farmer — literally earth-worker, from ge and ergon. The dragon is a medieval addition.
- NicholasNIK-uh-lusGreek
Victory of the people, from nike and laos. The bishop of Myra who became Santa Claus.
- PeterPEE-terGreek
Rock. A Greek translation made to order: Jesus gave Simon the Aramaic nickname Kephas, and petros renders it.
- StephenSTEE-vunGreek
Crown — specifically stephanos, the leaf wreath twisted for a victor. The first Christian martyr.
- PhilipFIL-ipGreek
Lover of horses, from philos and hippos. Alexander's father wore it first.
- GregoryGREG-uh-reeGreek
Watchful, vigilant — an instruction rather than a description. Sixteen popes have taken it.
- TimothyTIM-uh-theeGreek
Honouring God, from timao and theos. Paul's travelling companion and the recipient of two letters.
- BasilBAZ-ilGreek
Kingly, from basileus. The herb is named from the same word, having been reserved for royal use.
- Demetriusdih-MEE-tree-usGreek
Devoted to Demeter, goddess of grain — a pagan theophoric name that the church adopted wholesale.
- DamianDAY-mee-unGreek
To tame, to subdue, to master. Half of Cosmas and Damian, the physician saints who took no fees.
- DennisDEN-issGreek
Belonging to Dionysus. Worn down through St Denis, first bishop of Paris, into an unremarkable English first name.
- Jeromejuh-ROHMGreek
Sacred name, from hieros and onoma. The scholar who translated the Bible into Latin.
Names from myth and the classical world
The other layer, and the one moving fastest. These names were largely unusable in Christian Europe for centuries; the Titan and the hunter came back only when the church calendar stopped being the default source.
- Apollouh-POL-ohGreek
God of light, music and prophecy — and one of the very few Greek divine names nobody has managed to explain.
- Orionoh-RY-unGreek
The hunter Artemis set in the sky. The derivation is unknown, which has never slowed the name down.
- ZephyrZEF-erGreek
The west wind. Zephyros was the gentlest of the four wind gods, the one that brought spring.
- HectorHEK-torGreek
Holding fast; the one who holds the line. Troy's defender, and the most sympathetic figure in the Iliad.
- Evanderih-VAN-derGreek
Good man. In Roman legend the Arcadian who settled the Palatine hill generations before Rome was founded.
- Lysanderly-SAN-derGreek
Liberator — literally, a releasing of a man. The Spartan admiral who ended the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.
- HomerHOH-merGreek
Traditionally glossed as hostage, though the derivation is not secure. The poet, and a solid American name until the 1930s.
- NestorNESS-turGreek
Uncertain; possibly connected to homecoming. The old king of Pylos whose advice everyone in the Iliad requests and nobody takes.
- ZenoZEE-nohGreek
Of Zeus. Two famous philosophers wore it: the paradox-maker of Elea and the founder of Stoicism.
- DorianDOR-ee-unGreek
Of the Dorians, the Greek people who settled Sparta and Crete. Oscar Wilde borrowed it for a portrait.
How Greek naming works
Greece keeps names in the family by rule rather than by sentiment. The first son takes his father's father's name, the second son his mother's father's, and the pattern is followed closely enough that a Greek family tree reads as two or three names alternating down the generations — and that first cousins routinely share a name and a grandfather. The name itself is conferred at baptism, not at birth, so a Greek newborn may go several weeks with no official name at all.
The other rule is the calendar. Greeks mark their name day — the feast of the saint they were named for — more warmly than their birthday, and because the Orthodox calendar is thick with Greek saints almost every traditional name has a fixed date: George on 23 April, Nicholas on 6 December, Demetrius on 26 October. That calendar also explains the long gap in the mythological layer. For fifteen hundred years a Greek child was named for a saint, not for a Titan, and names like Apollo and Orion have come back mostly through parents outside Greece who wanted the myth without the church. The rest of the borrowing runs the other way, into Latin, Russian and Armenian — see names by origin for where they land.