Greek Given Names - Greek 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 girl's father's or woman's husband's name; 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. 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. This 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).

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". Nowadays, a woman's surname does not change upon marriage, though she can use the husband's surname socially. Children usually receive the paternal surname, though there are cases where children receive the maternal surname in addition or exclusively.

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 ancestry from a priest, i.e. ."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 such as "Karatasos".

Arvanite surnames are also common. 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 traditional Arvanitic family names like "Tzanavaras" and/or "Tzavaras".

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

• -akis (-άκης): associated primarily with Crete and the Aegean Islands.

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

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

Examples may include: "Melas", "Dimas", "Zorbas" and "Zappas", among many others.

• -atos (-ᾶτος): (from Cefalonia) suffix of Italian derivation. This suffix can trace its routes in Veneto, where is still very common (although without the Greek nominative case characteristic -s, as -ato). This can be explained because of Cefalonia 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.

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

• -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): both very ancient last names and clan forms used in the Pontus and Asia Minor regions.

Examples may include: "Stavridis", "Koutoufides", "Angelidis" and "Georgiadis" among many others.

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

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" and "Gregoriou" among many others.

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

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

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

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.

• -tzi, -tsi (-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.