Greek Mythology Girl Names

[mythologygirl]

I am pregnant with twin girls. I really love Greek mythology and drawn to greek mythology goddess, nymphs and muses names. I have a list of some I like, but looking for opinions, feedback or others that you like.

Arethusa(ar-uh-thoo-zuh)
Xanthe (zan-thee)
Eos (ee-aw-s) I think I'd like this one as a middle name.
Gaia (guy - yA)
Ianthe(ee-an-thee)
Selene (suh-leh'-nee) I think I'd like this one as a middle name.

Also Arethusa was the daughter of Nereus in Greek Mythology.

Io
Helle
Calliope
Cassandra

Just a quick heads up that the Greek names ending in a sounded “e” like Xanthe, Ariadne, Ianthe, Andromache, don’t travel well IME. Anglo Americans can normally say them after a single prompt, and Greeks of course, but a large number of people from other cultures are baffled - Victor Krum’s attempt at chatting up Hermione Granger are fairly representative.

I chose Iris for this reason.

I also love:
Hebe
Hester
Phoebe
Persephone

Helle was always pronounced heh-lay when I was at school. Your dd may be correcting all of her life.

I like Leda (leader) too

I would be loathe to give a child a name that you/they have to spend the rest of their lives telling people how to say. Xanthee is best on this list as it's most phonetically close. Gaia is nice but I'm guessing might be pronounced gay-a.
A child in my Dd school is called Kezia and it took me forever to remember how to say it correctly to the point I couldn't call the child anything for ages as I was afraid I would get it wrong. It's kez-ee-ah

Xanthe Eos
Phaedra Hebe

Lovely!

Calliope
Phaedra
Persephone
And most of the names listed by PPs.
Lovely names,

Zeta

Phaedra? Seriously?

Fell for her step son, tried to seduce him, when he rebuffed her, told his father the boy had tried to rape her, causing him to kill his son.

Clio

I love Gaia, it was nearly my name! The others are too difficult to pronounce imo and will set her up for a life of repeating herself, although I do love Xanthe
I also like
Iris
Phoebe
Helena
Calliope
congratulations !

Artemis. Goddess of the Hunt and Goddess of the Moon. The Roman version is Diana and that is what inspired Althorp to comment on the irony at Diana’s funeral about a girl named after the ‘ancient goddess of hunting’ being most hunted of all.

Talia/thalia If it's not already been said. One of the Greek muses,
I love this name was going to my girls name but i had a little boy x

I was at school with a Phaedra, she was a lovely girl.

What @BelfastmummyL said. I'd hate to lumber my child with a name that people would always say wrong and their first sentence to anyone is going to always be "actually it's pronounced .......... ". Job interviews, school, dates, hospitals etc. Anytime they meet anyone important there first sentence to them is always going to be that.

My classics teacher at school had a DD called Mnemosyne which I always thought was lovely.

We were set on Persephone for our daughter, but when she was born she looked far from a Persephone. She still has a Greek name, but one such is far more commonly used in English.

We also had Io, Iolanthe, and Athena on the list.

I'd hate to lumber my child with a name that people would always say wrong and their first sentence to anyone is going to always be "actually it's pronounced .......... ". Job interviews, school, dates, hospitals etc. Anytime they meet anyone important there first sentence to them is always going to be that.

This is my life and I hate it. Its not great being a shy child and having such an unusual name.
And its quite awkward in the work environment as every email/certificate/letter is addressed to a slightly different version of my name.

Quirky names are great until they are your name. Sometimes I don't think the parents think about the children when they name them.

A colleague of mine is Greek, her name is Sofia so not difficult for English speakers clearly, but she has an incredibly Greek surname and spelling it and correcting pronunciation is pretty much the first thing she has to do in any kind of official-ish conversation. Imagine if that was your first name? It would become quite a drag.

I'd pick one of the simpler names from your list, especially if you're not actually Greek.

I'd mix it up a bit, Xanthe Eos for example is major overkill but Xanthe is lovely.

I'd have something like Xanthe Hope and Ariadne Joy. Or Xanthe Blythe and Dido Loveday.

Dido Loveday! Please do not call your child this. Think about what that is going to be very simply changed to by their peers when they are at school.

I LOVE Gaia. Ianthe is also really pretty.

The names are all lovely but if you read the stories very few, if any, women in the Greek myths do well. I am hard pressed to think of one that doesn't have some sort of tragedy or sad fate befall them. Read A thousand ships by Natalie Haynes. Might give you some inspiration its a very readable retelling of the myths through the eyes of the women.

Athena
Daphne
Irene