The Ancestry of Your Greek Last Name
Have you ever wondered why the ancestry of your Greek last name is so difficult to trace? Well here’s why.
Last names were essentially nonexistent in ancient Greece. It was only in the 11th and 12th centuries that wealthy Greek families began to use last names. So, how did your ancestors come up with your last name? To answer this question, you’ll have to ask yourself the following:
- Does my last name mean something funny or weird in Greek?
- Does my last name refer to an occupation?
- Does my last name refer to a place?
- Is my last name a variant of a first name?
- Does my last name mean son of…?
The meaning of your Greek last name
Most Greek last names have been derived from a nickname, occupation, place, or first name of an ancestor. Women traditionally used a feminine version of their father’s name and later their husband’s name. Here are some examples of common Greek last names and their meaning:
- Kokinos – a nickname meaning “red”
- Raptis – occupation name for a “tailor”
- Konstantinopolites – referring to someone “from Constantinople”
- Stavros – from the given name “Stavros”
- Papadopoulos – meaning “son of a priest”
To add another spanner in the works, many of the Greek diaspora ancestry have altered surnames. A common one is Papadopoulos which in most cases, would be shortened to Papas. This makes it even more difficult to trace the ancestry of your Greek last name.
Looking at the prefix of your Greek last name to determine the meaning
More often than not, by breaking your Greek last name into two, you can easily find out the meaning. Below we examine common “prefixes” or the first half of the surname.
- Greek last names beginning in Archi–, meaning the first in charge or the boss
- Greek last names beginning in Chondro–, meaning fat
- Greek last names beginning in Gero–, meaning old or wise
- Greek last names beginning in Hadji–, Arabic for someone who has made a pilgrimage (for Christians this was to Jerusalem, for Muslims it was Mecca)
- Greek last names beginning in Kara–, meaning black in Turkish
- Greek last names beginning in Konto–, meaning short
- Greek last names beginning in Makro–, meaning tall
- Greek last names beginning in Mastro–, meaning mason or worker
- Greek last names beginning in Palaio–, meaning old
- Greek last names beginning in Papa–, meaning priest (this is often used with one of the suffixes meaning “son of”)
Looking at the sufix of your Greek last name to determine the meaning
The sufix of the surname will often relate to the prefix. See the examples below.
- Greek last names ending in –akis and –oulis are diminutive (cute or small) forms of the suffix e.g. Theodorakis is the diminutive form of Theodoros
- Greek last names ending in –lis and –tis are Turkish for “of” or “from”, usually referring to the place of origin e.g. Politis means someone from the Poli (which is what Constantinople was referred to for short)
- Greek last names ending in –idis, –ides, –iadis, and –iades, meaning son of
- Greek last names ending in –opoulos, meaning son of or descendant of
- Greek last names ending in –oglou and –oglu, meaning son of in Turkish
How to identify the location where your Greek last name originated
In many Greek last names, you can identify the location it originated by looking at the ending of the name. Here are some examples of this:
- Greek last names ending in –akis, likely originated in Crete
- Greek last names ending in –opoulos, likely originated in the Peloponnese
- Greek last names ending in –idis and –ides, likely originated in Thrace, Pontus or Asia Minor
- Greek last names ending in –iadis and –iades, likely originated in Thrace, Pontus, Asia Minor, Messinia or Lakonia
- Greek last names ending in –ellis and –allis, likely originated in Lesvos or Rhodes (but also present in other Dodecanese Islands)
- Greek last names ending in –elis and –ilis, likely originated in Asia Minor, Lesvos, Lemnos or Imbros
- Greek last names ending in –oudas and –akas, likely originated in Macedonia
- Greek last names ending in –bas, –las, –mas, –pas, likely originated in Macedonia or Epirus
- Greek last names ending in –akos, likely originated in Laconia (especially common in Mani)
- Greek last names ending in –oulis, likely originated in Thessalia
- Greek last names ending in –atos, likely originated in Kefalonia
- Greek last names ending in –eas, likely originated in Mani
- Greek last names ending in –oglou and –oglu, likely originated in Asia Minor
- Greek last names ending in –iou and –aou, likely originated in Cyprus
- Greek last names ending in –bou, –kou, –lou, and –mou, also likely originated in Cyprus
