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Baby names

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Original poster

Percy, Milo, other Greek boys' names?

39 replies

SK28 · 24/10/2014 13:20

We're expecting our first in January, and have more or less agreed on a girls' name, but are struggling with boys' names. We're looking for something of Greek origin as DH is Greek Cypriot, but something that is not TOO Greek, will be easily pronounced in the UK, and won't be said TOO differently by English family and Greek family.

We both like Percy. Probably short for Persius.
We also both like Leo. Probably short for Leandros.

We're not so keen on the long versions but like the idea of a longer name that can be shortened.

I love Milo, but DH isn't as keen, largely because it's not short for anything. I'm also toying with Finn (short for Phineas).

What do you guys think of any/all of these? I think our issue is we don't like the longer versions as much as the short versions...but boys' names with Greek origin are so difficult without veering into the territory of gods and mythology!

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Artandco · 30/10/2014 07:08

Ds1 has Thaddeus as middle name and we have Greek surname. Both children have Englishy first names though

Original poster
SK28 · 29/10/2014 23:26

No, I like Cosmo for sure - I also think it's lovely how it ties in to your family in different ways! I can imagine a little one called Cosmo being such an adorable little personality! I've added it to the list for discussion with DH. (Didn't mean trendy as in v popular by the way, just that it's a very cool name I think Smile )

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Oriunda · 29/10/2014 14:34

I'm not remotely trendy, nor is DH. I'm not sure that Cosmo is a trendy name - there were only 17 of them named last year (it took me ages to trawl the ONS survey looking for it!).

To be fair, DH is Italian, FIL is called Cosimo and SIL is a doctor, so Cosmo ticks a lot of boxes for us (as well as Greek/Italian origins, Cosmo is the patron saint of doctors - the name was first brought over to Scotland to honour the de Medici family).

I know it's a marmite name, but we love it and it really suits our little boy. So far, I've only had one nasty comment (from someone who clearly is an idiot!) - to my face, that is. I do like the Greek classics, and if DS had been a girl she would have been a Persephone, which perhaps gives you a clue as to what sort of names I go for!

Original poster
SK28 · 29/10/2014 11:10

Diddl you are right of course about nn not necessarily being used, but isn't that always the case?! You just hope if you and family use it, it'll stick, right? Grin

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Original poster
SK28 · 29/10/2014 11:09

Oriunda - I've wondered a lot about Cosmo - I like it a lot but I'm worried DH and I aren't trendy enough to pull it off!

A few people suggested Constantine - funnily enough we had Constantina on our girls list so maybe should reconsider it for a boy too - I think Dino is quite a sweet nn Smile

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Original poster
SK28 · 29/10/2014 11:00

Art Sebastian is definitely on my list! I love it. Leonidas/Leandros - yes Leo would usually be the former but we both pronounce it differently which bothers me...We found Leandros as a possible alternative Smile

OP posts:
diddl · 29/10/2014 09:06

Milo is, imo, a fabulous name.

If you use Leandros or Persius, they might not get called Leo or Percy anyway!

Oriunda · 29/10/2014 08:19

I offer you (my) Cosmo. Greek/Italian heritage and easy to pronounce.

DecaffTastesWeird · 28/10/2014 13:35

I was just about to suggest Constantine but see Artandco got there first!

Artandco · 28/10/2014 13:21

Leo would be leonidas wouldn't it?

How about:
Neo
Constantine - costas/ Conrad
Adrian
Miles - instead of milo
Sebastian
Zander
Timon

Booboostoo · 26/10/2014 20:28

I love Alkiviadis...but only in a parallel universe populated exclusively by Ancient Greek scholars. My name is Nafsika so I would also do well in this imaginary world!

celestialsquirrels · 26/10/2014 18:36

Ps lily definitely used in Greek - my mum has a Thia Lily of some description. Although prob Lili... Wonder what it is short for?

I think Max is great, use that! At least they will be able to say it!

celestialsquirrels · 26/10/2014 18:34

Ha ha ha at charalambia!
Our main family name is Alkiviadis... We told one of the current lucky owners of the name that we were thinking of using it for ds1 (we weren't!) and he sighed and said "no, please don't, the poor boy will be called Alka-Seltzer for half his life and Alki-holic for the rest like I have" !!!

Booboostoo · 26/10/2014 02:21

Thank you! DH is Greek/German, I am Greek, we lived in the uk for a couple of decades, now live in France but were also thinking of returning to Greece so our main requirement for names was that they could be easily pronounced in all three languages. Neither is Greek in origin. I think Lily might be Germanic in origin and Max Roman? Max is short for Maximilianos which is the Byzantine version.

My mum was all set to have a stroke if we didn't name PFB after her, but we basically lied. We told her that FIL, Charalambos, was angling for Charalambia and to avoid that disaster we said no family names. I suspect there was still some hair pulling involved but she then remembered a distant auntie called Lily and decided it was 'our' family name so our family won I've DH's family and she was appeased. All's fair in love, war and when trying to survive a Greek family!

Original poster
SK28 · 26/10/2014 01:17

Boo Lily and Max are such lovely names! They aren't Greek, are they? Did you get family pressure to go with Greek names?

The Milo pronunciation thing resulting in them calling him essentially Apple is a bit of an issue but DH immediate family are in London, it's aunties etc in Cyprus so I don't think it's the end of the world if they struggle a bit or think we're weird. I'd rather that than people struggling here, like you've experienced.

Milo needs more pondering for sure...

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Original poster
SK28 · 26/10/2014 01:14

Celestial Thanks for the insights and also for sharing your approach Smile Maybe I should try to persuade DH that for a boy we may need to be looser with the Greek restriction... Problem would come if we never had a girl as I know his family wouldn't like no Greek heritage reflected in names (despite surname being Greek) so if we ended up with only boys with English names I'd be villanised!

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DogCalledRudis · 25/10/2014 11:21

Lysander is nice

celestialsquirrels · 25/10/2014 10:39

It IS tricky for boys - which is why I ducked it and gave my girls greek names and my boys English ones! That was my way of dealing with their dual heritage... Because there just aren't that many Greek boys names that the English can manage apart from George, Nick, Andreas, John, Alexander...
Funnily enough the English name we used for DS2 is Miles! So not Milo but not far off. I can tell you the Greeks think it is bizarre and can't pronounce it... My-yelles. They joke that he should be called Kilometres in Greece as it is a metric country... Ho ho ho! Sigh.

Booboostoo · 25/10/2014 05:22

I have an unpronounceable Ancient Greek name. It's unusual even in Greece, while some of my English friends simply cannot say it ('fs' combination which some people can only pronounce 'ss' or 'sf'). As a result I named my Greek children Lily and Max because they were the easiest names I could think of!

The complication with Milo is that Greeks will struggle with the correct pronounciation and may well call him Meelo (=Apple). Percy and Leo should be easier to pronounce more faithfully to the English version.

Original poster
SK28 · 25/10/2014 00:11

Boo and Celestial - I'm not Greek, just DH, so we don't want a name that's really really Greek. Baby will already have a Greek surname. So that's why we're considering nicknames/abbreviations that are less Greek, and why we aren't throwing caution to the wind as suggested! Milo is a funny one - it's close to the word for apple, though not pronounced the same, and I've definitely come across Milos as a name of Greek origin, but it is less clear than some of the others :)

Nerf Yes, that was a typo, I preferred the spelling of Persius so we were playing around with it but Perseus (or Persus) would be the Greek I think.

I really like Theo, too - DH isn't so keen but not sure why - it's definitely on my list so maybe I'll bump it up a bit!

It's so tricky - many of the names suggested (George, Christos, Andreas etc) are family names already. And others I just feel are too Greek really... for girls it's much easier to find names of Greek origin but that aren't overly Greek. It matters to me that baby's name won't automatically suggest 100% Greek identity, as that's not my heritage, which is why we're struggling so much with this.

Thanks for all the suggestions :)

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idlefolly · 24/10/2014 22:51

Lambros, George and Angeli (pr. like Angela but with e at the end instead of a) are popular Greek names.

celestialsquirrels · 24/10/2014 22:09

Milo isn't really used as a Greek name. In fact it means apple in Greek. The Greek side of the family will think that is very odd (although you may think that if gwyneth can carry off an apple so can you...!)

NerfHerder · 24/10/2014 21:18

Oddly, all the greek boys we know are named Theo (none of them know one another!)
Theo is a lovely name, but I really like Milo too.

Isn't it Perseus in Greek? (Persius Latin)

celestialsquirrels · 24/10/2014 21:15

The classics are George/John/Andrew/Alexander but you know that!
Otherwise Theodore is good. Lucas works in both. Ditto Philip, Anthony.

I would be tempted to throw caution to the wind and call him Achilleas or manoli or a omething cool and let the English struggle with it but having said that I didn't with mine!

CornChips · 24/10/2014 21:06

Petros?