Name-giving in Ancient Greece

[Hamata]

i think you best post this in the EB forum

[Zethos]

Hi,

Can maybe some administrator move this post to "Europa Barbarorum"?

[Brandy Blue]

AFAIK each Greek got one given name and no family name. He might be better known by his knickname. (Plato, for instance.) If two people had the same name, and you wanted to specify which, you would say whose son he was, for example "Alcibiades, son of Clinias." If you were talking about someone from out of town, then most people would not know his father's name anyway, so you would say what town he was from, for instance "Diogenes of Sinope."

That's the best I can do from what little I remember. I hope someone beter informed will comment.

[Ludens]

That's how I understand it too. Greeks had only a single proper name, so to identify themselves to strangers they would mention their area of origin or their father's name. Well-known families were sometimes identified by the name of a famous ancestor, whether real or mythological (e.g. the Alcmaeonidae). I am not sure if members of such families would use these names themselves, though.

[Arjos]

The most basic form was, as people said, given name + patronymic...
With the region or ethnicity omitted unless if giving one's name abroad: given name + patronymic + ethnicity or given name + ethnicity...
While in poleis with demes, people used their demotic: given name + patronymic + demotic...

[Zarakas]

In some parts of Greece people were identified by their Clan name. Some ancient clan names still exist today. Not all ancient Greeks lived in city-states. Some lived as tribes that were made up of different clans.

Zarakas

[moonburn]

so the newb in me reawakening asks whats a demo ?

[SoFarSoGood]

In some parts of Greece people were identified by their Clan name. Some ancient clan names still exist today. Not all ancient Greeks lived in city-states. Some lived as tribes that were made up of different clans.

Zarakas

Even Athens and Rome had 'tribes'.

A 'demos' is an identifiable (political) group; the people of a city that can vote etc.

A 'demotic' name is popular or commonly used name. In ancient Egypt there was a demotic language etc, but like medieval England where Latin or French was used for 'state' business while most 'normal' people spoke English.