Ancient Greek personal names

The study of ancient Greek personal names is a branch of onomastics, the study of names, and more specifically of anthroponomastics, the study of names of persons. There are hundreds of thousands and even millions of individuals whose Greek name are on record; they are thus an important resource for any general study of naming, as well as for the study of ancient Greece itself. The names are found in literary texts, on coins and stamped amphora handles, on potsherds used in ostracisms, and, much more abundantly, in inscriptions and (in Egypt) on papyri. This article will concentrate on Greek naming from the 8th century BC, when the evidence begins, to the end of the 6th century AD.

Single names and names within families

Ancient Greeks usually had one name, but another element was often added in semi-official contexts or to aid identification: a father's name (patronym) in the genitive case, or some regions as an adjectival formulation. A third element might be added, indicating the individual's membership in a particular kinship or other grouping, or city of origin (when the person in question was away from that city). Thus the orator Demosthenes, while proposing decrees in the Athenian assembly, was known as "Demosthenes, son of Demosthenes of Paiania"; Paiania was the deme or regional sub-unit of Attica to which he belonged by birth. In some rare occasions, if a person was illegitimate or fathered by a non-citizen, they might use their mother's name (metronym) instead of their father's. Ten days after birth, relatives on both sides were invited to a sacrifice and feast called dekátē (δεκάτη), "tenth day"; on this occasion the father formally named the child.

Demosthenes was unusual in bearing the same name as his father; it was more common for names to alternate between generations or between lines of a family. Thus it was common to name a first son after his paternal grandfather, and the second after the maternal grandfather, great-uncle, or great-aunt.