The eldest son is often named after the paternal grandfather, and the eldest daughter after the paternal grandmother. Names are usually of religious origin (so the kid has a nameday to celebrate) or it can be an ancient Greek name.

Each island or area in Greece has a patron saint, and people living in that area often give their children that name. Also the names Panayotis (Panayota for a girl), Maria, Despina are very often because of the love of the Greeks towards Panagia (Mary). Also sometimes parents promise to name the kid after a saint if the saint "helps" the mother to have a kid without any complications during the birth.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GREEK NAMES WHEN YOU SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS

When you are searching for an ancestor it's important to know one thing about Greek names.

Let's assume that you're looking for a long lost relative named Yannis Thomas Pappas. On a first glance you probably think that all you have is your ancestor's first, middle and last name. This is not completely correct.

Thomas is most likely your ancestor's father name since Greeks do not really use middle names. In older times they used their father's name as a middle name in order to tell cousins apart. Therefore Yannis Thomas Pappas and Yannis Alexandros Pappas could possibly be cousins (their fathers being Thomas and Alexandros Pappas).

Then your ancestor's name could give you even more information than you think. Let's take our example's last name "Pappas". "Pappas" in Greek (the accent on the second "a") means priest, so chances are that one of your ancestors was actually a priest since most Greek last names derive from nicknames or from the job your ancestor was doing!

To help you with your research we've created a greek name translator where you can possibly find some information about your name or your ancestor's name. Give it a try: GREEK NAME DATABASE