Greek Names
Many of the Greek names have come from Ancient Greek names and from Greek gods and goddesses. There are thousands of different Greek names just as there are in any language. There are some web sites which have listings of the Greek names and they will also tell you what the name means in Greek. The Ancient Greeks named their gods and goddesses and there were many. Then many of the humans names their children after some of the Greek gods and goddesses.
The Greeks have called themselves, Hellenes since the era of Homer. Before then, the name of Hellenes was the name of the tribe which settled in Thessalic Phthia, and Achilles was their leader. Most of the European languages other European countries have the letters gr in their translations of the word Greece. For example, Catalan says Grecia, English says Greece, French says Grece, German says Griechenland, Italian says Grecia, Spanish says Grecia, Portugese says Grecia. Dutch says Griekenland, West Frisian says Grikelan, Polish says Grecja, and the Danish say Grakenland, and the list goes on.
Most of the Greeks in early times only had one name. There is an online lexicon of Greek name which provides the principles of how the Greeks were named. There is more evidence on the male names than there is for the female names. The oldest sons were often given the name of their paternal grandfather. The second son was given the name of the maternal grandfather. Greek names are often compound words. For example: Heracles (Hera means fame), Hippocrates (Hippo means horse), Alexander (Alex means defend), and Anaxagoras ( Anax means master). The reason for a name is to identify someone so the ancient Greeks there were three elements in identifying someone. There was the given name, the name of the parent (which was normally the father, but rarely the mother), and the origin or ethnic membership of the individual.
Of the 215,000 individuals published in the LGPN from the Greek mainland, the Islands and the Western Mediterranean, there are only about 200 who have two names. Sometimes an individual was known as Joe son of Moe (example only). One real example of this might be Alcibiades son of Kleinias, Athenian. Whether this way of identifying someone was necessary or not depended on the circumstances and where the individual was. It stands to reason that if the individual was at home, they would not have to be referred to as, Joe, son of Moe. He would be acknowledged as Joe only.
In Greece today, it is possible for some to trace their ancestry back over two or three hundred years because of the children being given the names of their grandparents. This is how the boys were named and there is a strong indication that this is also how the girls are named.
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