100 Greek Boy Names With Meanings and Pronunciations

Achilles

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Uncertain, possibly from achos, “pain”
• Pronunciation: uh-KIL-eez
• Popularity: #1,290 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (151 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 55% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Achilles is one of the few famous Greek names whose meaning nobody can pin down. Scholars have linked it to the Achelous River and to the Greek word achos, meaning “pain,” but neither reading is settled.

The story is what parents remember. Achilles’ mother dipped him in the River Styx as a baby to make him invincible, and because she gripped him by the heel, that patch of skin stayed mortal.

Paris later put an arrow through it, which is how we ended up with the phrase “Achilles heel” for a hidden weak spot.

In the US the name is genuinely rare, last charting at #857 in 2018, so your son is unlikely to meet another. Achilleas is the modern Greek spelling if you want the version a Greek grandparent would recognize.

Aegeus

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Of a goat, from aix
• Pronunciation: ee-JEE-us

Aegeus is an Ancient Greek name meaning “of a goat,” and it belonged to the king of Athens who fathered Theseus.

When Theseus sailed to Crete to kill the Minotaur, he promised to raise white sails on the return trip if he survived. He forgot. Aegeus saw black sails on the horizon, assumed his son was dead, and threw himself into the water in grief.

That stretch of water has been the Aegean Sea ever since, which makes this a rare name with a map named after it. It reads as ancient rather than everyday, so it suits parents who want something no classmate will share.

Ajax

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Aias)
• Meaning: Uncertain, possibly “mourner” or “of the earth”
• Pronunciation: AY-jaks

Ajax is the Latinized form of the Greek Aias, and onomastic references give its meaning as uncertain, possibly “mourner” or “of the earth.”

Two heroes carry the name in Homer. Ajax the Great was the biggest and most powerful of the Greek warriors at Troy; Ajax the Lesser was the fastest runner in the army after Achilles.

Modern life has borrowed it heavily, from the Dutch football club AFC Ajax to a web development technique and a scouring powder, which is either a drawback or a conversation starter depending on your outlook.

It has never cracked the US top 1,000, so it stays distinctive on a class roster.

Akakios

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Innocent, not evil
• Pronunciation: ah-KAH-kee-os

Akakios comes from the Greek akakos and means innocent, or literally not evil, which is a gentle thing to hand a newborn.

The Latinized spelling is Acacius, and plenty of families prefer the softer C to the spikier K. Several early bishops and saints carried it, so it has deep Orthodox roots as well as classical ones. Expect to spell it out in English-speaking countries, and expect the nickname Kaki or Akis to arrive on its own.

Alcaeus

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Alkaios)
• Meaning: Strong, from alke, “strength, prowess”
• Pronunciation: al-SEE-us

Alcaeus is the Latinized form of Alkaios, built on the Greek alke, meaning strength or prowess. Some references push the reading closer to “mighty.”

Five separate figures in Greek myth answer to it, including a grandson of Perseus, so the name has been in circulation for roughly three thousand years.

There was also a real Alcaeus of Mytilene, a lyric poet of the seventh century BCE who wrote drinking songs and political verse from the island of Lesbos. Between the muscle and the poetry, the name covers a lot of ground.

Alexandros

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Defending man, from alexo, “to defend,” and aner, “man”
• Pronunciation: ah-LEK-sahn-dros
• Popularity: #2,644 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (49 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, down 8% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Alexandros joins alexo, to defend, with aner, man, and comes out as “defending man.”

People often describe Alexandros as the Greek form of Alexander. It is the other way around: Ἀλέξανδρος came first, and Alexander is its Latin dress.

The name spread across medieval Europe on the back of the Alexander Romance, the wildly popular retelling of the life of Alexander the Great. Its English form still sits at #30 for US boys, so Alexandros gives you all of that history with none of the playground overlap.

Alexis

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Helper, defender, from alexo
• Pronunciation: uh-LEK-sis
• Popularity: #554 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (547 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; falling in the United States, down 82% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Alexis comes from the same alexo root as Alexandros and means helper or defender.

Gender is the thing to think through. In Greece it is a masculine name and nothing else, while in the US it swung female for a generation and is only now drifting back. It still ranks #513 for American boys, so it is far from unheard of.

If you love the sound but want the masculinity read instantly, Alexios is the older Greek spelling and does that work for you.

Anargyros

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Without silver, glossed “incorruptible”
• Pronunciation: ah-NAR-yee-ros

Anargyros is built from an, without, and argyros, silver. The Orthodox Church uses it for saints who healed without charging a fee, which is where the usual gloss of “incorruptible” comes from.

It is a heavy, four-syllable name in English, and Greek families tend to shorten it to Aris or Argyris in daily use. As a middle name it works beautifully, giving a child a quiet reminder that some things should not be for sale.

Anastasios

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Resurrection, from anastasis
• Pronunciation: ah-nah-STAH-see-os

Anastasios means resurrection, and it remains one of the most-used male names in Greece.

The Easter link is the whole point. Boys born near Pascha are still given this name, and the feminine form Anastasia has travelled far further into English.

Nicknames come readily. Tasos is the Greek default, while Tas and Dass turn up in the diaspora. If the full form feels long on a birth certificate, remember your son will answer to two syllables by kindergarten.

Andreas

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Manly, from aner, “man”
• Pronunciation: ahn-DREH-as
• Popularity: #1,276 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (154 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, up 7% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Andreas is the ancient Greek and Latin form of Andrew, built on aner, man, and read as “manly.”

Saint Andrew is the patron of Greece, and Greeks named for him celebrate their name day on November 30 rather than making a fuss of their birthday.

That is worth knowing if you have Greek relatives who will expect a phone call.

In the US it drifts in and out of the lower reaches of the charts while Andrew holds steady at #73. Andreas gets you the same saint and a softer ending.

Androcles

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Androkles)
• Meaning: Glory of a man, from aner and kleos
• Pronunciation: AN-druh-kleez

Androcles is the Latinized form of Ἀνδροκλῆς, combining aner, man, with kleos, glory.

The story attached to it is one of the oldest in the West. A runaway slave hides in a cave, finds a lion in pain, and pulls a thorn from its paw. Recaptured and sentenced to die in the arena, he meets the same lion, which refuses to touch him.

Aesop kept the tale alive and George Bernard Shaw turned it into a play. For a child, it is a name that comes with a lesson about kindness paying you back.

Angelos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Messenger
• Pronunciation: AHN-yeh-los
• Popularity: #9,779 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (7 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, up 11% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Angelos means messenger, not angel, which surprises most people.

The Greek word angelos was simply the job title of anyone carrying news. Early Christian writers used it for divine messengers, the medieval Latin boy name Angelus followed, and the English word angel arrived last.

The Italian form Angelo sits at #304 for US boys, so the sound is already familiar to American ears. Angelos keeps the Greek spelling and the softer y-sound in the middle that Greek speakers use.

Antigonus

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Antigonos)
• Meaning: From anti, “like, compared to,” and gonos, “offspring, stock”
• Pronunciation: an-TIG-uh-nus

Antigonus is usually translated as “like his ancestors,” though that is a loose reading rather than a direct one.

The parts are ἀντί, meaning like, compared to, or against, and γόνος, meaning offspring or stock.

Depending on which sense of anti you take, the name can mean measuring up to your forebears or standing against them, which is a fair summary of most teenagers.

Antigonus I Monophthalmus was one of Alexander the Great’s generals and founded a dynasty that ruled Macedonia for over a century. The feminine Antigone is far better known, so the masculine form still feels unclaimed.

Antonios

• Origin: Greek, from the Roman family name Antonius
• Meaning: Unknown; the Roman family name has no settled etymology
• Pronunciation: ahn-TOH-nee-os

Antonios is the Greek form of Anthony, and like the Roman family name Antonius behind it, its original meaning is genuinely unknown.

The popular gloss of “priceless” was invented much later by writers who linked it to Greek anthos, flower.

It is the fuller of the two Greek forms; Antonis is the shorter, more casual one, and Tonis and Antonakis do the day-to-day work.

Related forms fan out across the Balkans as Andon, Anton and Antonij, so a child called Antonios will find a cousin of his name almost anywhere in southeastern Europe.

Apostolos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Messenger, apostle
• Pronunciation: ah-POH-stoh-los

Apostolos means messenger or apostle, from a verb meaning to send out.

Apostolos Nikolaidis is the reason many Greeks know the name. He captained the national football team, managed it, and also played basketball, volleyball and the decathlon, representing Greece at the 1920 Olympics in two different sports.

He went on to race cars, run the country’s automobile club, and lend his name to the Athens stadium that still hosts Panathinaikos. Tolis is the standard nickname, and it lands far more easily in English.

Aris

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Ares
• Meaning: Uncertain, possibly “bane, ruin” or arsen, “male”
• Pronunciation: AH-rees

Aris is the modern Greek form of Ares, and it doubles as a short form of Aristeidis and Aristotelis, which is part of why Greek parents like it.

The god behind it was one of the twelve Olympians, son of Zeus and Hera, and the deity of war and raw courage. The Greeks admired his nerve and were uneasy about his appetite for slaughter, which is a more interesting inheritance than a simple hero name.

Four letters, one clear stress, no spelling debate. It travels better into English than almost any other name on this list.

Aristeidis

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Aristides
• Meaning: Best, from aristos, with the patronymic suffix -ides
• Pronunciation: ah-ree-STEE-thees

Aristeidis is the modern Greek form of Aristides, built on aristos, best, with the suffix -ides, son of.

Aristides the Just was an Athenian statesman so famous for fairness that the nickname stuck for two and a half thousand years. A second-century writer of the same name defended Christianity to the Roman emperor in a text still read today.

Aris is the ready-made short form, which lets a child grow into the long version at his own pace.

Aristotelis

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Aristotle
• Meaning: Best purpose, from aristos, “best,” and telos, “end, purpose”
• Pronunciation: ah-ree-stoh-TEH-lees

Aristotelis is the modern Greek form of Aristotle, and the parts mean roughly “the best purpose.”

The philosopher tutored Alexander the Great and more or less invented the habit of classifying the natural world, so the name carries a scholarly weight that few others manage. It stayed in ordinary Greek use rather than becoming museum-only, helped along by the shipping magnate Aristotelis Onassis. Telis and Aris are the everyday short forms.

Athan

• Origin: Modern Greek, short form of Athanasios
• Meaning: Immortal, from athanatos
• Pronunciation: AH-than

Athan is the short form of Athanasios and carries its meaning, immortal.

The long version honours Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, the fourth-century bishop who spent seventeen years in exile defending the Nicene Creed. Thanasis and Thanos are the other short forms Greek families reach for.

Athan is the one that suits an English-speaking classroom best. Two syllables, phonetic spelling, and a meaning most children will think is the coolest thing they have ever heard.

Charalampos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: To shine from happiness, from chara, “joy,” and lampo, “to shine”
• Pronunciation: khah-RAH-lam-bos

Charalampos means to shine from happiness, joining chara, joy, with lampo, to shine. Few names describe a baby better.

The saint behind it, Charalambos of Magnesia, was arrested in the third century for preaching, tortured on the orders of a Roman commander, and refused to recant. Several of the men torturing him converted on the spot.

Greek families use the spelling Charalambos just as often, and everyone lands on Babis or Bambis in conversation. Both spellings sound the same in Greek, so pick the one that looks right to you.

Charilaos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Grace of the people, from charis and laos
• Pronunciation: khah-REE-lah-os

Charilaos means grace of the people, from charis, grace, and laos, people.

Charilaos Trikoupis is widely rated among the finest prime ministers Greece has had, serving seven separate terms between 1875 and 1895 and pushing through roads, railways and the Corinth Canal.

He is also remembered for the bleakest sentence in Greek parliamentary history, delivered in 1893: regretfully, we are bankrupt. A name that carries both the ambition and the honesty is a decent thing to give a son.

Christos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Anointed; the variant Chrestos means “good, useful”
• Pronunciation: KHREE-stos

Two separate names sit behind this spelling. One is christos, anointed, the title given to Jesus. The other is the older Chrestos, meaning good or useful.

In modern Greek the second sense has broadened, and a Greek speaker asked to define Chrestos is more likely to say ethical, just or decent than merely useful.

Christakis is the affectionate form, used at home and never on a document. Christos is not the same name as Christos the surname element, so do not be alarmed when it turns up as both.

Chrysanthos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Golden flower, from chrysos and anthos
• Pronunciation: khree-SAHN-thos

Chrysanthos means golden flower, joining chrysos, gold, with anthos, flower. It is the source of the chrysanthemum, so the name is quietly familiar even to people who have never met a Greek.

The Orthodox Church keeps Saint Chrysanthos on the calendar with his wife Daria, which gives the name a name day rather than only a botanical link.

It is long for English-speaking ears, and Chrysanthos is heavier than Chris in every way. That is either the point or the problem, depending on how bold you feel.

Chrysostomos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Golden mouth, from chrysos and stoma
• Pronunciation: khree-SOH-stoh-mos

Chrysostomos means golden mouth, and it began life as a compliment rather than a name. Greeks handed it to speakers whose words were worth listening to.

Saint John Chrysostom, the fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople, earned it for his preaching and kept it forever. Chrysostomos of Smyrna, a bishop and Greek nationalist, was seized during the Greco-Turkish war of 1919 to 1922 and killed by a mob; he was declared a martyr in 1992.

The name is a mouthful in any language. Makis is the usual short form, and it does a lot of work.

Cleon

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Kleon)
• Meaning: Glory, from kleos
• Pronunciation: KLEE-on

Cleon comes from kleos, glory, the same element buried inside Pericles, Sophocles and half the great names of Athens.

The historical Cleon was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War, loud, populist and thoroughly disliked by the writers who recorded him. Thucydides was not a fan.

Modern audiences are more likely to know Cleon as the charismatic gang leader in the 1979 film The Warriors, itself loosely descended from Xenophon’s Anabasis. Two syllables, easy spelling, and no one else in the class will have it.

Costas

• Origin: Modern Greek, short form of Konstantinos
• Meaning: Constant, steadfast, from Latin constans
• Pronunciation: KOH-stas

Costas is one of two common transcriptions of Κώστας, the short form of Konstantinos. Kostas is the other, and Greeks use them interchangeably.

The C spelling is the one that travelled with the diaspora, which is why Greek restaurants and shipping firms across the English-speaking world are called Costas rather than Kostas.

It works as a full legal name in Greece, not only as a nickname, so you can put it on the birth certificate without the longer version behind it.

Cyrus

• Origin: Old Persian, via Greek Kyros
• Meaning: Uncertain; often read as “young” or “far-sighted”
• Pronunciation: SY-rus
• Popularity: #268 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,284 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 88% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Cyrus reached English through Greek but started in Persia as Kūrush. The Greeks wrote it Κῦρος, Kyros, and the Romans made it Cyrus.

A lot of name lists gloss it as “lord,” which is almost certainly wrong. That reading comes from confusing Kyros with the unrelated Greek kyrios, lord.

Cyrus the Great founded the Persian Empire and issued the cylinder often described as an early charter of tolerance. The name sits at #268 for US boys, familiar without being crowded.

Dimitrios

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Demetrios
• Meaning: Of Demeter, the goddess of grain and harvest
• Pronunciation: dee-MEE-tree-os

Dimitrios is the modern Greek transcription of Demetrios, a name built on Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest.

Demeter’s own etymology is unsettled. The meter half plainly means mother; the first half may be earth or grain, which would make Dimitrios something close to “son of the earth mother.”

Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki gave the name its enormous popularity in the Orthodox world, and October 26 is a busy name day. Dimitris, Mimis and Takis all serve as short forms.

Dion

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Of Zeus, from the genitive Dios
• Pronunciation: DEE-on

Dion is a short form of the many Greek names beginning Dio, and it means “of Zeus.”

Dionysos is the obvious parent: god of wine, theatre and general excess, and a son of Zeus, which is exactly where the meaning comes from.

Dion of Syracuse, a real fourth-century BCE statesman and student of Plato, also carried it on its own.

The sound arrived in English through soul and doo-wop rather than through Greece, so it reads modern rather than ancient. That gap between look and history is most of its appeal.

Dorotheos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Gift of God, from doron, “gift,” and theos, “god”
• Pronunciation: doh-ROH-thee-os

Dorotheos is the masculine form of Dorothea and means gift of God.

It has an odd literary footnote. In 1631 a Greek chronicle printed in Venice appeared under the name Pseudo-Dorotheos of Monemvasia, an author who never existed. The real writer wanted anonymity but also credibility, so he borrowed a respected clerical name and invented a diocese to go with it.

Theodoros uses the same two words in the opposite order, which makes the pair irresistible for twins.

Draco

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Drakon)
• Meaning: Dragon, serpent
• Pronunciation: DRAY-koh

Draco is the Latin spelling of the Greek Drakon, meaning dragon or serpent.

The historical Draco wrote the first known legal code of Athens in the seventh century BCE. It punished almost everything with death, which is how we got the word draconian.

Several physicians named Drakon appear in the family of Hippocrates, so the name has a healing side as well as a punitive one. Harry Potter gave it a fresh association that will follow any boy through school, and only you can judge whether that is a problem.

Efstathios

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Eustathios
• Meaning: Well-built, steady, from eu, “good,” and stathos
• Pronunciation: ef-STAH-thee-os

Efstathios is the modern Greek form of Eustathios and means steady or well-built. The saint attached to it took the name at his conversion. Exiled by the emperor, recalled to lead a campaign, then ordered by Hadrian to sacrifice to the old gods, he refused and was killed with his wife and sons. The West knows him as Saint Eustace, patron of hunters.

Stathis is the everyday short form, and it is the one you will actually hear.

Eleftherios

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Eleutherios
• Meaning: Free, from eleutheros
• Pronunciation: eh-lef-THEH-ree-os

Eleftherios means free, and no Greek name carries more political weight. Freedom is the first word of the national motto.

In antiquity Eleutherios worked as an epithet rather than a name, attached to Zeus, Eros and Dionysos in the sense of the liberator.

Eleftherios Venizelos, the statesman who shaped the modern Greek state, has Athens airport named after him, so every visitor meets the name on arrival. Lefteris is the Greek short form and Lefty the one that survives the trip to America.

Elias

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew Eliyahu
• Meaning: My God is Yahweh
• Pronunciation: eh-LEE-as
• Popularity: #13 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (8,837 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 133% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Elias is the form of Elijah used in the Greek New Testament, and it means “my God is Yahweh.”

It is also the runaway success story of this list. Elias ranked #13 for US boys in 2025, ahead of Elijah in much of Europe and comfortable in German, Scandinavian, Spanish and Greek families alike.

That cross-language ease is the practical argument for it. Grandparents on both sides will pronounce it correctly on the first try, which is not something you can say about Chrysostomos.

Emilios

• Origin: Greek, from the Roman family name Aemilius
• Meaning: Rival, from Latin aemulus
• Pronunciation: eh-MEE-lee-os

Emilios is the Greek form of the Roman family name Aemilius, usually traced to aemulus, rival.

The Aemilii were one of the oldest patrician families in Rome and claimed descent from Amulius, the uncle who tried to drown Romulus and Remus. Their name spread across Europe and produced a long feminine line including Emilia and Emily.

Among Greek boy names it is one of the softest, and it pairs well with a blunt one-syllable surname.

Emmanouil

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew Immanuel
• Meaning: God is with us
• Pronunciation: eh-mah-noo-EEL
• Popularity: Emmanuel ranked #179 for US boys in 2025

Emmanouil is the Greek form of Emmanuel and means God is with us.

It is enormously common in Crete, where Saint Manolis devotion runs deep, and Manolis is the short form you will hear in every Cretan village. Manos is shorter still.

The nineteenth-century painter Emmanouil Lampakis trained in Athens and then in Munich under Nikolaos Gyzis, and two of his canvases hang in the National Gallery of Greece. The English form Emmanuel sits at #179 for US boys, so the sound is well established.

Evangelos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Bringing good news, from eu and angelos
• Pronunciation: eh-VAHN-yeh-los

Evangelos means bringing good news, from eu, good, and angelos, messenger. It is the root of the word evangelist.

As a definition for a newborn it is hard to beat, and Greek families lean on it heavily. Vangelis and Vangos are the standard short forms, and the composer Vangelis carried one of them to an Oscar.

The soft y-sound in the middle also gives it a Spanish-adjacent warmth, which suits families blending Greek and Hispanic heritage.

Filippos

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Philippos
• Meaning: Friend of horses, from philos and hippos
• Pronunciation: FEE-lee-pos

Filippos is the modern Greek transcription of Φίλιππος and means friend of horses.

People describe it as the Greek version of Philip, but the order is the reverse: Philippos came first and Philip is the Latinized descendant.

Some academic sources prefer “fond of horses” to “friend of horses,” a small difference that changes the picture from a horseman’s companion to a horseman’s enthusiast ⁽¹⁾. Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander, is the bearer everyone remembers.

Fotis

• Origin: Modern Greek, variant of Photios
• Meaning: Light, from phos
• Pronunciation: FOH-tees

Fotis comes from phos, light, and is the modern variant of the older Photios.

Photios I of Constantinople, the ninth-century patriarch, is a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. His contemporaries considered him the sharpest mind of the age, and the two-part nomocanon he assembled still underpins church law in Greece.

Boys named Fotis are often born near Epiphany, which Greeks call Ta Fota, the lights. Two syllables and a bright meaning make it one of the easier picks here for an English-speaking household.

Georgios

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Farmer, earth-worker, from georgos
• Pronunciation: YOR-yos
• Popularity: #3,540 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (32 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, up 10% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Georgios comes from georgos, farmer or earth-worker, and it is the original form of George.

It is not simply a name Greek parents like; it is consistently the most common male name in the country, common enough that most extended families have one. Saint George is the reason, and his feast on April 23 is one of the most widely celebrated name days.

Giorgos is the modern spoken form and Yorgos the transcription you will see on film credits. The English George still sits at #126 for US boys, so nobody will be confused by the Greek original.

Gerasimos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Deserving of honour, from geras, “honour, prize, gift”
• Pronunciation: yeh-RAH-see-mos

Gerasimos is usually glossed as gift or prize, but the fuller reading is better. Γεράσιμος splits into geras, honour or prize, and the suffix -imos, deserving of. So the name means one who deserves the honour, which is a subtly different thing from simply receiving it.

Saint Gerasimos is the patron of Kefalonia, and on the island the name is everywhere. Makis and Gerasimakis handle the daily traffic.

It is a long name for English-speaking ears, but the middle stress makes it flow better than its eleven letters suggest.

Giannis

• Origin: Modern Greek, variant of Ioannes
• Meaning: Yahweh is gracious, from Hebrew Yochanan
• Pronunciation: YAH-nees

Giannis is the everyday modern form of Ioannes, the Greek name behind Latin Iohannes and eventually the English name John.

For most Americans the name arrives via basketball.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, born in Athens to Nigerian parents, carried the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 title and took Finals MVP, and the nickname the Greek Freak did the rest.

You will also see it written Yiannis or Yannis, since the Greek gamma has no exact English letter. All three spellings are the same name and the same sound.

Grigorios

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Watchful, alert, from gregoreo
• Pronunciation: gree-GOH-ree-os

Grigorios is the Greek form of Gregory and means watchful or alert, from gregoreo, to keep watch.

Sixteen popes and a long line of Orthodox patriarchs have carried it, which is why it feels weighty even to people who have never studied church history.

The Paralympic boccia player Grigorios Polychronidis has competed for Greece at every Games since Beijing 2008, collecting gold, silver and bronze, and carried the flag at the 2016 opening ceremony in Rio. Grigoris is the shorter Greek form.

Haris

• Origin: Modern Greek
• Meaning: Grace, kindness, from charis
• Pronunciation: KHAH-rees

Haris is a modern transcription that covers two older names: the masculine Chares and the feminine Charis, both from charis, grace.

It also works as the short form of Charalampos, which is how most Greek men called Haris came by it.

One thing worth knowing before you commit: an unrelated Arabic and Urdu name Haris, meaning guardian or cultivator, is common in Britain and Bosnia. Your son may find that people assume a different heritage, which is a small thing but not nothing.

Hermes

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Uncertain, possibly “cairn” or “boundary marker”
• Pronunciation: HUR-meez

The meaning of Hermes is not settled. The leading guess connects it to the piles of stones that marked Greek boundaries and roadsides, which fits a god of travellers rather neatly.

Hermes carried messages for the Olympians, especially Zeus, and looked after athletes, merchants, orators, travellers and, less respectably, thieves. Speed and luck were his department.

The name never entered the US top 1,000, and the fashion house owns most of the search results. Ermis is the modern Greek form if you want the sound without the handbags.

Hieronymus

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Hieronymos), Latinized
• Meaning: Sacred name, from hieros and onoma
• Pronunciation: hy-eh-RON-ih-mus

Hieronymus means sacred name, from hieros, holy, and onoma, name. Jerome is the same name after centuries of wear.

Hieronymus Bosch painted the strangest religious art of the fifteenth century, filling oak triptychs with creatures nobody had imagined before and few have improved on since.

Michael Connelly borrowed it for his detective Hieronymus Bosch, named by his mother after the painter and known to everyone as Harry. That is a useful precedent: the long form on the certificate, Harry at the dinner table.

Homer

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Homeros)
• Meaning: Hostage, pledge
• Pronunciation: HOH-mer
• Popularity: #4,769 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (21 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 34% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Homer renders the Ancient Greek Ὅμηρος, Homeros, a name meaning hostage or pledge. The modern Greek form is Omiros.

The poet needs no introduction, but the name has an odd geography: it is rare in Greece and far more common in the United States, where it had a long run in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before dropping off the charts in 1983.

The Simpsons is the obstacle, and there is no getting around it. If that does not bother you, Homer is short, warm, unmistakably classical, and completely uncrowded.

Iason

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Healer, from iasis, “healing”
• Pronunciation: ee-AH-son
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2020 at #9,947 (7 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since; steady in the United States, unchanged over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Iason is the Greek original that English turned into Jason, and it means healer.

He led the Argonauts after the Golden Fleece, which is the heroic half of the story. The other half is his treatment of Medea, so read the whole myth before you decide it is a name about courage.

Jason still ranks #165 for US boys while Iason stays rare, so the Greek spelling gives you a familiar sound with an unfamiliar look.

Ignatios

• Origin: Greek, from the Roman family name Egnatius
• Meaning: Unknown; later linked to Latin ignis, “fire”
• Pronunciation: eeg-NAH-tee-os

Ignatios has no confirmed meaning. It descends from the Roman family name Egnatius, whose own origin is lost.

Somewhere along the way the spelling shifted toward the Latin ignis, fire, which is why so many name sites confidently list it as meaning fire. That is a folk etymology, not a translation.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Ignatius of Loyola keep it in circulation across both halves of Christianity.

Ilias

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Elias
• Meaning: My God is Yahweh, from Hebrew Eliyahu
• Pronunciation: ee-LEE-as

Ilias is the modern Greek form of Elijah, and it means my God is Yahweh.

This is the second Elijah variant on the list, and the two do different jobs. Elias belongs to half of Europe; Ilias belongs specifically to Greece.

There is a happy coincidence in the sound. Ilias is also how Greek writes Ilias poiesis, the Poem of Ilios, the epic that Latin turned into the Iliad. The name of the prophet and the name of the poem are unrelated in origin but identical on the page.

Ioannis

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Ioannes), from Hebrew Yochanan
• Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
• Pronunciation: ee-oh-AH-nees

Ioannis is the full, formal Greek form of John, the one that appears on passports and diplomas while Giannis does the talking at home.

From Ioannes came Latin Iohannes and then the whole European family: John, Ivan, the French Yannick and the Irish Sean.

If your family already has a Yiannis, this is the version that honours him without duplicating him.

Say the first two syllables lightly and the stress lands where it should.

Konstantin

• Origin: Latin, via Greek and Slavic use
• Meaning: Constant, steadfast, from constans
• Pronunciation: kon-stan-TEEN

Konstantin is the Slavic and Germanic form of Constantine, and despite that it is heavily used in Greece.

Constantine the Great moved the Roman capital to Byzantium and renamed it after himself, so the name is stitched into Greek history at the foundation level. Eleven Byzantine emperors and two modern kings followed.

It ranks among the most common male names in the country. The K spelling and the clipped ending give it a crisper feel than the fuller Konstantinos.

Konstantinos

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Latin Constantinus
• Meaning: Constant, steadfast, from constans
• Pronunciation: kon-stan-TEE-nos

Konstantinos is the specifically Greek form of Constantine, and it is the version prime ministers and kings have used.

It sits just behind Konstantin in Greek usage, which makes the pair one of the most common naming choices in the country. Between the two spellings, a striking share of Greek men answer to some version of it.

The short forms do the heavy lifting: Kostas, Kostis, Dinos and Gus all trace back here. Gus in particular is how the name survived a century of American immigration paperwork.

Kostas

• Origin: Modern Greek, short form of Konstantinos
• Meaning: Constant, steadfast, from Latin constans
• Pronunciation: KOH-stas

Kostas is the K transcription of the same short form that Costas spells with a C, and it is the one you will see in Greece itself.

There is a small curiosity here. Kostas serves as the short form of Konstantinos everywhere, but it is not used as a nickname for the differently-spelled Konstantin, even though the two long names are essentially the same.

Greek footballers and basketball players have carried it across Europe, so it needs no explanation in most of the world.

Kyriakos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Of the Lord, from kyrios
• Pronunciation: kee-ree-AH-kos

Kyriakos means of the Lord, from kyrios. The Greek word for Sunday, Kyriaki, comes from the same root, and boys born on a Sunday were once given the name for exactly that reason.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis has led the party New Democracy since 2016 and served as prime minister of Greece since 2019. Politics runs in the family: his father held the same office in the early 1990s and his sister was foreign minister.

Kyriakos is a name Greek speakers handle easily and English speakers usually shorten to Kyri.

Lampros

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Bright, shining, brilliant
• Pronunciation: LAM-bros

Lampros means bright, shining or brilliant, and it is related to the lampo element inside Charalampos.

Greeks also use it as an adjective, which gives the name a pleasant everyday warmth rather than a museum feel. Lambros is the alternative transcription, and the two are pronounced identically since the Greek mp combination sounds like a b.

If you want something rarer still, the Lambros spelling is the less common of the two and is most concentrated in Cyprus.

Lazaros

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew Eleazar
• Meaning: My God has helped
• Pronunciation: LAH-zah-ros

Lazaros means my God has helped and began as the Hebrew name El’azar, later Eleazar.

Greek-speaking Jews shortened it, the writers of the New Testament wrote it Λάζαρος, and Latin turned that into Lazarus.

Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, is the name day, and in parts of Greece children still go door to door singing the kalanda for it. Lakis is the usual short form.

Leander

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Leandros)
• Meaning: Lion man, from leon and aner
• Pronunciation: lee-AN-der
• Popularity: #1,463 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (122 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 83% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Leander means lion man, joining leon, lion, with aner, man.

The myth is a swimming story. Leander crossed the Hellespont every night to reach Hero, guided by a lamp she set in her tower, until a storm blew it out. Byron swam the same strait in 1810 to prove it could be done.

The name had a modest American run that ended in 1969, when it last appeared at #972, and it has stayed outside the top 1,000 since. Lee is the obvious short form.

Leonidas

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Son of the lion, from leon with the suffix -idas
• Pronunciation: leh-oh-NEE-thas
• Popularity: #510 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (591 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 151% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Leonidas means son of the lion, and it has never needed marketing.

Leonidas I of Sparta held the pass at Thermopylae against a vastly larger Persian army with a few hundred men, and the monument there still carries the phrase he is said to have given Xerxes when told to hand over his weapons: come and take them.

It ranks #510 for US boys, which is the sweet spot. Recognizable, spelled the way it sounds, and shortened to Leo the moment your son meets anyone under six.

Linus

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Linos)
• Meaning: Flax, from linon
• Pronunciation: LY-nus

Linus comes from linon, flax, the plant that gave the ancient world its linen and its bowstrings.

In myth, Linus of Thrace personified the lament, and the Greek song form called the linos took its name from him. He taught music to his brother Orpheus and then to Heracles, a pupil who did not take correction well and killed his teacher with a lyre.

Charles Schulz gave the name its modern face, and Linus Pauling gave it two Nobel Prizes. It is gentle, brainy and completely unbothered by fashion.

Loukas

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: From Lucania, a region of southern Italy
• Pronunciation: LOO-kas
• Popularity: #3,110 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (39 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 81% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Loukas is the original Greek form of Luke, and it identifies a person from Lucania in what is now southern Italy.

The Greeks used it for the people of that region before it settled into a personal name. The Romans wrote it Lucas, medieval Europe carried it everywhere, and English clipped it to Luke.

Luke the Evangelist, a physician by trade, is the reason it never went out of use. With Lucas at #10 for US boys, Loukas gives you the same sound with a Greek passport.

Marios

• Origin: Greek, from the Roman family name Marius
• Meaning: Uncertain; linked to Latin mas, “male,” or to Mars
• Pronunciation: MAH-ree-os

Marios is the Greek form of the Roman Marius, a family name traced either to mas, male, or to Mars, the Roman god of war. The Greek counterpart of Mars was Ares, and Aris grew out of that. So Aris and Marios are, in a roundabout way, the same idea in two languages, which makes them a neat pair for twin boys.

It is short, warm and easy for English speakers, and it is unrelated to the feminine Maria despite the resemblance.

Matthaios

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew Mattityahu
• Meaning: Gift of Yahweh
• Pronunciation: mah-THEH-os

Matthaios is the form of Matthew used in the Greek New Testament, from the Hebrew Mattityahu, gift of Yahweh. Matthew the Evangelist was a tax collector before he was an apostle, which gives the name a second-chances quality that few others carry.

Mattheos is the modern Greek respelling and Thanos is not related, whatever the internet tells you. In English-speaking countries expect the occasional correction to Matthias.

Michail

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew Mikha’el
• Meaning: Who is like God?
• Pronunciation: mee-khah-EEL
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2019 at #10,457 (7 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since; rising in the United States, up 26% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Michail is the modern Greek transcription of Μιχαήλ, the name of the archangel, and it asks a question rather than making a statement: who is like God?

It also spells the Russian Михаил, so a Michail may be read as Greek or Slavic depending on where he is standing.

Mihail is the alternative transcription, and the November 8 feast of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel is the name day. With Michael at #21 in the US, the sound needs no introduction; only the spelling does.

Michalis

• Origin: Modern Greek, variant of Michail
• Meaning: Who is like God?
• Pronunciation: mee-KHAH-lees

Michalis is the modern Greek variant of Michail, and it is the form Greeks actually use in conversation.

There is a practical reason to prefer it over Michail on this side of the Atlantic. Michail reads to English eyes like a misspelling of Michael, while Michalis clearly belongs to another language and gets treated as its own name.

Michalakis and Michos are the affectionate versions. Crete in particular is full of them, thanks to a long local devotion to the archangel.

Miltiadis

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Miltiades
• Meaning: Son of red earth, from miltos and -ides
• Pronunciation: meel-tee-AH-thees

Miltiadis is the modern transcription of Μιλτιάδης, combining miltos, red earth or red ochre, with -ides, son of.

Miltiades the Younger commanded the Athenians at Marathon in 490 BCE and chose the tactics that beat a much larger Persian force, which is why the name survived.

Depending on how you read red earth, the name can mean son of the clay, son of the soil, or son of red pigment. Any of the three is a fine thing to tell a child.

Nektarios

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Of nectar, the drink of the gods
• Pronunciation: nek-TAH-ree-os

Nektarios comes from nektar, the drink of the Olympian gods, and it is one of the loveliest nature names for boys in Greek.

The word itself is thought to combine elements meaning not and kill, so nectar is literally the thing that keeps death away. The name inherits that quietly.

Saint Nektarios of Aegina, canonized in 1961, is one of the most recently recognized saints in the Orthodox Church and made the name popular again in the twentieth century.

It has almost no foreign variants, so it stays unmistakably Greek.

Nikolaos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Victory of the people, from nike and laos
• Pronunciation: nee-KOH-lah-os
• Popularity: #2,591 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (51 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, up 15% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Nikolaos joins nike, victory, with laos, people.

Saint Nicholas of Myra is the bearer everyone already knows, though not by this name. His habit of leaving gifts anonymously for families in trouble is the seed that grew, by way of Dutch Sinterklaas, into Santa Claus. He is also patron of sailors, students and children.

In Greece he is honoured on December 6, and Nikos is the short form in constant use. Nicholas sits at #112 for US boys and Nikolas at #717, so the Greek original lands somewhere comfortably between familiar and rare.

Odysseas

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Odysseus
• Meaning: Unknown; the Greeks linked it to odyssomai, “to hate, to be angry”
• Pronunciation: oh-thee-SEH-as

Odysseas is the modern Greek form of Odysseus, and its meaning is genuinely unknown. Homer plays on a verb meaning to be hated or to give pain, which suits a hero the gods spent twenty years punishing.

The Odyssey is the reason the name still means something to people who have never opened it: ten years of getting home, one wooden horse, and a word, odyssey, that every language borrowed.

The poet Odysseas Elytis won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979, which gave the name a modern Greek face alongside the ancient one.

Odysseas is the common spelling and Odyssefs the stricter one.

Orpheus

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Perhaps from orphne, “the darkness of night”
• Pronunciation: OR-fee-us

Orpheus may come from orphne, the darkness of night, though the etymology is only a best guess.

The story is the one everyone half-remembers. His wife Eurydice died, he went down to Hades, and his singing was so good that the god of the dead agreed to release her on one condition: do not look back. He looked back on the last stretch and lost her for good.

Musicians have never let the name go, and Orfeas is the modern Greek spelling. It is a heavy story to attach to a child, but it is also the oldest argument in Western culture for the power of a song.

Panagiotis

• Origin: Modern Greek
• Meaning: All holy, from pan, “all,” and hagios, “sacred”
• Pronunciation: pah-nah-YOH-tees

Panagiotis comes from Panagia, the all holy, the Orthodox title for the Virgin Mary. Its parts are pan, all, and hagios, sacred.

It is one of the most common male names in Greece, and August 15, the Dormition of the Theotokos, is the name day. Expect an entire village to be celebrating at once.

The short forms are where it gets interesting: Panos, Takis, Panagiotakis and Notis all come from here. If the full eleven letters feel like a lot on a US birth certificate, Panos handles daily life without losing the meaning.

Pantelis

• Origin: Modern Greek, short form of Panteleimon
• Meaning: All compassionate, from pan and eleimon
• Pronunciation: pan-TEH-lees

Pantelis is the short form of Panteleimon, which means all compassionate.

Saint Panteleimon was a physician who is said to have treated the poor for nothing, and he remains one of the healing saints of the Orthodox Church, which makes this a natural choice for medical families.

The singer Pantelis Pantelidis gave the name a contemporary echo in Greece. He started by recording songs for friends, was picked up after they posted the clips online, swept the newcomer awards in 2013, and died in a car crash three years later at 32.

Paris

• Origin: Ancient Greek, possibly Luwian or Hittite
• Meaning: Unknown
• Pronunciation: PAR-is
• Popularity: #592 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (497 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; falling in the United States, down 17% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

The meaning of Paris is unknown, and the name may not be Greek at all. Scholars suspect a Luwian or Hittite origin, borrowed into Greek along with the Trojan legends.

In the Iliad, Paris is the Trojan prince whose abduction of Helen starts the war, and the archer whose arrow finds Achilles’ heel. He is a complicated figure rather than a hero.

The French capital has nothing to do with him; that city is named for the Gallic Parisii. In the US the name now reads female, ranking #592 for girls in 2025, with its last appearance on the boys’ chart back in 2000.

Pavlos

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Latin Paulus
• Meaning: Small, humble
• Pronunciation: PAHV-los
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2020 at #11,647 (6 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since; falling in the United States, down 20% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Pavlos is the Greek form of Paul, from the Latin paulus, meaning small or humble.

Paul the Apostle wrote most of his letters in Greek and spent a good deal of time in Greek cities, so the name has been at home there since the first century. June 29 is the name day, shared with Peter.

Pavlos, the former crown prince of Greece, carries it today, though the title has been honorary since the monarchy ended in 1973. Paul sits at #262 for US boys, so Pavlos is the unusual spelling of a name nobody will misread.

Periklis

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Pericles
• Meaning: Surrounded by glory, from peri and kleos
• Pronunciation: peh-ree-KLEES

Periklis is the modern Greek form of Pericles, and its parts mean surrounded by glory.

Pericles ran Athens through its best decades, funding the arts, widening democratic participation and commissioning the building programme that produced the Parthenon. His contemporaries called him the first citizen of Athens.

You are looking at the results of his tax policy every time you see a photograph of the Acropolis. Few names come with a better argument for public spending.

Petros

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Stone, from petros
• Pronunciation: PEH-tros
• Popularity: #8,746 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (9 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, down 8% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Petros means stone, and it exists because of a pun. Jesus renamed Simon as Kephas in Aramaic, rock, and the Greek New Testament rendered that as Petros.

Pete Sampras, born to Greek parents, took the family name to fourteen major singles titles and a world number one ranking before retiring in 2003. He is still the benchmark for serve and volley tennis. Petrakis and Petros are both in use, and Peter at #187 keeps the English form familiar.

Phineus

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Unknown; possibly “strong mind” or from a word for “vulture”
• Pronunciation: FIN-ee-us

Nobody has settled the meaning of Phineus, and there are two competing accounts.

The first reads it as ἶφι, powerful, plus νοῦς, mind, giving strong mind. The second traces it to φήνη, a word for vulture, which fits the myth better than you might like.

In the story, Phineus was a blind seer tormented by the Harpies, who snatched his food away until the Argonauts drove them off. Since Iason is on this list too, that is one more reason the two names sit well together.

Proteus

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: First, from protos
• Pronunciation: PROH-tee-us

Proteus is built on protos, first, which makes it an obvious pick for a firstborn son.

Homer calls him the Old Man of the Sea, a shape-shifting god who would only answer a question if you could hold on to him while he turned into a lion, a serpent and a wave in turn. That is where the word protean comes from.

The sea connection makes it a fine choice for families who live by the water, and the meaning makes it a quiet compliment to a first child.

Savvas

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Aramaic Sabbas
• Meaning: Old man, elder
• Pronunciation: SAH-vas

Savvas is the modern Greek transcription of Σάββας, itself from an Aramaic word meaning old man or elder.

Naming a baby elder sounds odd in English and reads as a blessing in Greek: may he live long enough to earn it.

Saint Sabbas the Sanctified founded the monastery in the Judean desert that still bears his name, one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world.

A second Saint Sabbas was a Roman officer executed for refusing to renounce his faith, an event that reportedly prompted seventy soldiers to convert on the spot. Vas and Sakis are the short forms.

Serafeim

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew seraphim
• Meaning: Fiery ones, burning ones
• Pronunciation: seh-rah-FEEM

Serafeim comes from the Hebrew seraphim, the burning or fiery ones. In Jewish tradition the seraphim occupy the fifth rank of the angelic hierarchy; in Christianity they sit at the very top, six-winged and closest to God. Islamic tradition has a comparable set in the bearers of the throne.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov brought the name into wide Orthodox use. Serafim is the alternative transcription, and Makis is the Greek nickname.

Silas

• Origin: Ancient Greek, probably a short form of Silvanus
• Meaning: Of the forest, from Latin silva
• Pronunciation: SY-las
• Popularity: #71 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (4,639 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 110% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Silas is probably a Greek short form of Silvanus, the Roman god of woods and fields, whose name comes from silva, forest.

The tangle is that Silas, Silvanus and the Hebrew Saul all appear in the New Testament for what may be the same travelling companion of Paul, and scholars have never fully unpicked which is a translation of which.

None of that has slowed it down. Silas sits at #71 for US boys, comfortably inside the top hundred, with a woodsy meaning and a short, sturdy sound.

Simon

• Origin: Ancient Greek (Simon)
• Meaning: Flat-nosed, from simos
• Pronunciation: SY-mun
• Popularity: #230 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,529 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; steady in the United States, up 10% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

There are two Simons and they are unrelated. The Greek one comes from simos, flat-nosed, and was an ordinary personal name in antiquity.

The biblical Simon is the Greek spelling of the Hebrew Shim’on, meaning he has heard, which is a completely different word that happened to look the same once written in Greek letters.

Greek myth gives the name to one of the Telchines, the first inhabitants of Rhodes and metalworkers said to have forged Poseidon’s trident. At #230 for US boys, Simon is one of the least demanding names on this list.

Sotirios

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Soterios
• Meaning: Saviour, deliverer, from soter
• Pronunciation: soh-TEE-ree-os

Sotirios means saviour or deliverer, from soter, and it was used as a title for Christ before it became a name.

Its most delicious bearer is Sotirios Panopoulos, born in Vourvoura and emigrated to Canada at twenty.

After a spell in the mines he opened a restaurant in Ontario, started playing with sweet and savoury combinations, and put pineapple on a pizza ⁽²⁾.

Sotiris and Sotos are the short forms. The Saturday before Easter is the traditional name day, which keeps it in the same family as Anastasios.

Spyridon

• Origin: Late Greek
• Meaning: Uncertain; from spyridion, “basket,” or Latin spiritus
• Pronunciation: spee-REE-thon

Spyridon has two possible sources, the Greek spyridion, a small basket, and the Latin spiritus, spirit. Onomastic references decline to pick a winner.

Saint Spyridon is the patron of Corfu, where his relics are carried through town four times a year, so the island is full of Spyros.

The name also owns the first medal of the modern Olympics that mattered to Greeks. Spyridon Louis, a water carrier from Marousi, was talked into entering the brand new marathon event in 1896, won it, and became a national figure overnight.

Stamatios

• Origin: Medieval Greek
• Meaning: To stop, from stamato
• Pronunciation: stah-MAH-tee-os

Stamatios comes from the medieval Greek stamato, to stop, and it was given in the hope of stopping something specific: a run of infant deaths in a family. It is a name with a prayer folded into it.

Stamatios Krimigis, born on Chios, ran the space department at the Applied Physics Laboratory and has had instruments on missions to every planet in the solar system. Asteroid 8323 Krimigis is named for him.

Makis and Stamatis are the everyday forms, and the feminine Stamatia carries the same history.

Stavros

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Cross
• Pronunciation: STAHV-ros

Stavros means cross, and it is given for the Elevation of the Holy Cross rather than for the crucifixion itself. Boys born around that feast traditionally get the name. Churches on the revised Julian calendar mark it on September 14; those keeping the old calendar celebrate on September 27.

It is short, blunt and unmistakably Greek, and it needs no nickname, though Stavrakis exists for small children.

Stephanos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Crown, wreath
• Pronunciation: STEH-fah-nos
• Popularity: #13,635 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 21% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Stephanos means crown or wreath, and the literal sense is closer to that which encircles. The Greeks handed out a stephanos of olive leaves to victors long before anyone thought of it as a name.

Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr, which is why the church calls him the Protomartyr and why the name spread across every European language.

Stefanos is the modern Greek spelling, and the tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas has made it familiar to a new generation. Stephen holds #383 in the US, so the sound is settled even where the spelling is not.

Stergios

• Origin: Modern Greek
• Meaning: To love, to be content, from stergo
• Pronunciation: STEHR-yos

Stergios comes from stergo, to love or to be content, and it began life as an epithet rather than a name.

Stylianos of Paphlagonia gave away his inheritance and went to live in the desert, where people kept coming to hear him speak. When a plague reached his village, families prayed to him to spare their children, and the children lived.

Grateful parents started calling him Stergios, the beloved, and naming their sons after him with that word rather than his own. A nickname for a saint became a name in its own right.

Stylianos

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Pillar, from stylos
• Pronunciation: stee-lee-ah-NOS

Stylianos means pillar, from stylos, the word behind the columns of every Greek temple you have seen photographed. It is one of the more common male names in Greece, and Saint Stylianos is the protector of children, which is exactly why parents keep choosing it.

Almost nobody uses the full form day to day. Stelios does so much of the work that plenty of Greeks treat it as a separate name rather than a short form.

Takis

• Origin: Modern Greek
• Meaning: A short form; meaning depends on the parent name
• Pronunciation: TAH-kees

Takis is a diminutive that broke free. It serves as the short form of Panagiotis, Dimitrios, Antonios and Eleftherios, so its meaning depends entirely on which long name a particular Takis started with.

Greek naming habits have shifted toward using full names, so you hear it less on the school playground than you would have two generations ago.

It is still given as a standalone name to thousands of boys across Greece and Cyprus. Four letters, one stress, and no spelling argument in any language.

Theodoros

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: Gift of God, from theos and doron
• Pronunciation: theh-oh-THOH-ros
• Popularity: #3,839 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (29 births), according to U.S. Social Security Administration data; rising in the United States, up 108% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Theodoros means gift of God, and it uses exactly the same two words as Dorotheos in the opposite order.

That symmetry makes the two an unusually satisfying pair for twin boys. For a boy and girl, the feminine forms Theodora and Dorothea do the same trick.

The English Theodore now sits at #4 for US boys, so this is the one name on the list your son will share with half his preschool if you Anglicize it. Thodoris is the Greek short form; Teddy is the American one.

Theofanis

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Theophanes
• Meaning: Manifestation of God, from theos and phaino
• Pronunciation: theh-oh-FAH-nees

Theofanis means the appearance or manifestation of God, from theos and phaino, to show. The name is tied directly to January 6, which the Orthodox Church keeps as Theofania, the feast of the baptism of Christ. Boys born in early January are often given it for that reason.

Fanis is the short form and the one you will hear. It has a bright, quick sound that stands on its own if the full version feels like a lot.

Vangelis

• Origin: Modern Greek, variant of Evangelos
• Meaning: Bringing good news, from eu and angelos
• Pronunciation: VAHN-yeh-lees

Vangelis started as the short form of Evangelos and has been a full name in its own right for generations.

The composer Vangelis is the reason most non-Greeks know it. His score for Chariots of Fire won the Academy Award in 1982, and Blade Runner did the rest.

Vaggelis is the alternative transcription, and it is worth thinking twice about in an English-speaking country, where that double g invites the kind of playground attention no parent is hoping for.

Vasilis

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Basileios
• Meaning: King, from basileus
• Pronunciation: vah-SEE-lees

Vasilis descends from basileus, the Greek word for a ruler, which had come to mean king outright by the time of Alexander the Great.

Saint Basil is celebrated on January 1 in the Orthodox Church, which makes this the traditional name for boys born on New Year’s Day. He is also the figure who brings gifts to Greek children, filling the role Santa plays elsewhere.

Vasilis is the spoken form; Vasileios is the formal one on documents. Both shorten to Vasos or Vasilakis.

Vasileios

• Origin: Ancient Greek
• Meaning: King, royal, from basileus
• Pronunciation: vah-SEE-lee-os

Vasileios is the modern Greek transcription of Βασίλειος, the root of the English name Basil.

The herb got its name from the same word. Greeks called it βασιλικόν φυτόν, the kingly plant, because it went into royal perfumes and, later, into the water used to bless a church. So a boy named Vasileios shares his name with a king, a saint and the best thing you can put on a tomato.

Vladimiros

• Origin: Greek form of the Slavic Vladimir
• Meaning: Great ruler, from vladeti, “to rule,” and meru, “great”
• Pronunciation: vlah-DEE-mee-ros

Vladimiros is the Greek form of the Slavic Vladimir, and the reading of it is contested.

The first element, vladeti, plainly means to rule. The second is where scholars split: meru gives famous or great, producing great ruler, while miru gives world or peace, producing ruler of the world or ruler in peace.

The Greek connection is not accidental. Vladimir the Great accepted Orthodox Christianity in 988 and brought Kyiv into the Byzantine religious world, which is how a Slavic name acquired a Greek ending.

Zaharias

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Hebrew Zekharyah
• Meaning: Yahweh remembers
• Pronunciation: zah-hah-REE-as

Zaharias means Yahweh remembers, and it is a variant transcription of Zacharias. Dropping the C gives a spelling closer to how Greek actually says it.

You will sometimes see the claim that it comes from zahari, the Greek word for sugar. The dates rule that out: zahari does not appear until well after the sixth century, centuries after the name was already in use.

Zacharias is the New Testament father of John the Baptist, which is why the name reached every corner of Christian Europe. Zaharias is the Greek route to it.

Zeus

• Origin: Ancient Greek, from Proto-Indo-European Dyeus
• Meaning: Sky, to shine
• Pronunciation: ZOOS

Zeus goes back to the Proto-Indo-European Dyeus, the bright sky, which also produced the Latin Jupiter and the Sanskrit Dyaus. It is one of the oldest recoverable words in any European language.

He ruled Mount Olympus, threw the lightning, and fathered a long list of children including Athena, who arrived fully armed out of his skull.

The name has never entered the US top 1,000 and it is not used in Greece as a given name at all. That makes it a bold choice rather than a traditional one, and you should expect to hear the same joke about the family dog more than once.

Zinon

• Origin: Modern Greek, from Zenon
• Meaning: Of Zeus
• Pronunciation: ZEE-non

Zinon is the modern Greek transcription of Zenon, a name meaning of Zeus.

Zeno of Citium founded Stoicism in a painted colonnade in Athens, and Zeno of Elea invented the paradoxes about arrows and tortoises that still turn up in first-year philosophy.

For parents who like the mythological names but find Zeus too much, Zinon keeps the connection and loses the thunderbolt.

Zissis

• Origin: Modern Greek
• Meaning: Life, lifetime
• Pronunciation: ZEE-sees

Zissis comes from a Greek root meaning life, and like Stamatios it was traditionally given as a wish rather than a description.

Its name day moves every year because it falls five days after Easter, on the feast known as Pigi Zois, the life-giving spring. Zoi shares the date, though the two names are connected by meaning rather than by descent.

The double s spelling is the common one, and Zisis is the tidier alternative. Either way it is one of the rarest names here outside Greece.