Help me find a Greek name!
Offline I don't know much about Greek history, but I've been trying to find cool nicknames for fun. I have a friend who is named Athena, and she has given herself the nickname of pallas athene. I asked her how she came up with this and she had this to say:
"well, pallas athene is just another name for athena, in greek history..
soo..i didn't come up with it, because it's my name!!
if you have ever read edgar allan poe's "the raven" ( which you should, its an incredible poem..) the line is
"on the pallid bust of pallas just above my chamber door.."
and he's talking about a statue of the greek goddess athena, there. that's my name!
and in other historical documents, athena is also called athene, pallas, pallas athene, and it's all the same. the roman equivalent for athena is minerva...which is cool too."
I'm interested in learning more about this. My name is Brett and I've been trying to explore history and also think of other fancy nicknames.
"Every true faith is infallible -- It performs what the believing person hopes to find in it. But it does not offer the least support for the establishing of an objective truth. Here the ways of men divide. If you want to achieve peace of mind and happiness, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, then search." - Nietzsche
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I've read a fair amount of Greek literature, but I don't think I've ever heard a Greek name that sounds similar to Brett.
Most female names in Greek writing end with a vowel, usually "-a" or an "-e" (Clytemnestra, Persephone, Asia, Jocasta, etc) while most of the Greek male names ended with an "-ius" or "-eus" or "-us" (Perseus, Cassius, Julius, Oedipus, etc).
Obviously there were exceptions. Clothos, Atropos, and Lachesis were all females, and all three of their names break the vowel rule. As far as males go, you could have a name like Agemmemnon, which breaks the -us suffix rule. But most names more or less followed that form.
I don't think I've ever heard of a Bretteus, though.
Maybe Brutus?
Tough question. I love it that your friend is named Athena, though. I loooove Greek names, and Athena has always been a good one. I would name a girl Athena. Totally.
But to be fair, I've always thought Calypso was a cool name, too, and there's no way that would be considered even close to normal as a modern name.
Plus, Calypso was a total dominatrix whore. Bad name for a daughter.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
Haha I like Brutus, thanks.
If it helps, you can Google the words greek, name and generator (no quotation marks needed,) and find a lot of name generators that will give you all the Greek names your heart desires. There is even one site (...sorry, I forget where...) that will allow you to generate names in something like forty or more different cultures.
Happy surfing!
Conor
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"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
Hey there!
Well, you're in luck! My mom is Aphrodite, and my aunt is Athena, so I'm related to them!
Ok, I'm just kidding. Sort of. My mom & her sister actually are named Aphrodite and Athena, but obviously they're not the real thing. (And I'm Alexandra... you haven't heard of me?? I'm one of the "lesser" gods!
)
Anyways, my favorite Greek guys' names are Stavros (Steven), Petros (Peter), Pavlos (Paul), and Spiro (not sure that really has a translation). I'm not sure there's a direct translation for 'Brett' but I second the Brutus suggestion. This is technically of Latin origin, but hey who cares, it sounds fierce and ruthless! And who doesn't want that? Though if you want to give off a more jovial image, I would also suggest Bacchus, the god of wine.
Here are some male names: Aristidis, Aristotelis, Dimocritos, Orion, Alexander, Hercules, Periclis, Omeros, Phileas, Achileas, Odysseus, Minoas, Aristofanis, Menelaos.
Female names: Persefony, Clitemnistra, Media, Pinelope, Helen.
The names greek goddess listed are christianic not ancient greek.
And one letter short of a library!
I like the name Stavros. That seems like a cool, manly-man-sounding name. That's the name of a guy with huge, phython arms in a wife beater and sunglasses that will steal your girlfriend while you're not looking.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
And if your daughter came into the world the same way Athena did, your wife wouldn't get the "I-brought-you-into-this-world" line, because she wouldn't have been the one trepanned.
Rule of thumb: if someone used the name on a boat, don't use it for your daughter.
The Greek myths are full of bad daughter monikers: Cassandra, Electra, Hera...actually, there aren't too many good role models for either gender in the epic poems. Everyone was either a total bastard or died horribly.
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maybe if this sig is witty, someone will love me.
I like it that you called it trepanning. =]
Good point. I guess you just have to choose the name you like and ignore the characters that used it in literature. Probably easier to do in some cases than others, though.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
I think Brutus is Roman name, I never met with it in Greek history or mythology. Lapidus ? Apuleius ? Thucydides ? Xenophon ?
That will do
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/gre-anci.php
Just grab some Greek mythology or book about ancient Greek history and search index for names.
Ecrasez l'infame!
Yeah. I can see Helen being okay, or even Jason. I actually met a woman named Antigone...wtf were her parents thinking?
There was a comedian that said she named her cats after the men she dated, then spent her time at home yelling things like, "Drunkard, get off the couch! Stop peeing in the plants, Married Man."
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maybe if this sig is witty, someone will love me.
Brutus probably isn't Greek. I'll admit I was thinking of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, but that doesn't count as Greek literature, so obviously it may not even be Greek. I only included it because it was the closest thing I could think of that was similar to Brett, and it does have a Greek-like masculine suffix.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.