Name Days in the Greek Orthodox Faith
As a Greek Cypriot I learnt from a very young age that in our faith Name Days play an important part, and are as important or sometimes more important that birthdays. Now as part of Ellines United I have decided to add to this website all the names that need to observe. As many of you may wonder where your name may have come from here is a brief run down of where your name was generated.
Most children born into the Greek Cypriot Faith will be given a name that is aligned to a Greek Orthodox recognized saint. A name day is celebrated on the saint’s day and generally involves celebrations similar to that of your birthday (which means sweets, gifts and gatherings). On name days friends and family come to visit and wish you well. Greeks wish us Χρόνια Πολλά and means in English many happy years. The gatherings can be celebrated in many ways, going out for clubs, restaurants having parties generally celebrating the Saint’s day. We have separated all the name days according to the months in which they are celebrated, and also provided the names for each of the days.
Have you ever wondered how you got your name? I did for years; I wondered why I was named George. Now I was born on the 23 April which as you will see is St George’s day, to make matters worse my fathers name is George. Now traditionally Greeks would generally name their kids after there grandparents. Now my grandfathers name is Kyriacos, so I should have been name Kyriacos George. This would have followed many years of tradition where parents named their kids after their grandparents, (boys after their grandfather and girls after their grandmother. Now as you can see my grandfathers name is Kyriacos. Middle-names were given to associate the child’s father. Now from what you can see my parents did not follow tradition. If we even go further in my history, my great grandfathers name is George, so my parents have given me problem for my future son. Do I name my son George George, or do I reverse the tradition and name my son Kyriacos George or do I break tradition and choose another Saints name. This will have to be decided between my future partner and myself. Girls names also follow a similar standard as boys name, so if you have difficulty naming your kids how about you go back to tradition, or look through the vast Saint names below.
From a young age my parents would take us to church to celebrate this huge event. Not only did we have to go to Church but we also had to fast. On Good Friday, there is a sad atmosphere and the church bells ring and flags fly at half-mast. One of my fondest memories of this night is the carrying of the Epitaphios (which represents the tomb of Jesus) around the Church. This religious event also brings people together to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. The resurrection of Christ starts at the midnight service and ends once the last guest has left.
Midnight mass is the most important of all religious days leading up to this big day. This is the true celebration of Christ. At midnight, the church turns off all its lights and all church followers light candles. During this part of the service all the followers sing out the traditional hymn “Christos Anesti” or “Christ has risen” After the service we all try and take the candles home and let them burn for as long as possible.
January
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February
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March
March 01 | Marias Aigyptias, Evdokias / Tis Tyrofagos |
March 02 | Evthalias |
March 03 | Kleonikos |
March 05 | Kononos |
March 07 | Laurentios (Laurence) |
March 08 | Theofylaktos |
March 16 | Xristodosios |
March 17 | Alexios, Alexios, Alexis (Alex) |
March 18 | Kyrillos (Cyril) |
March 19 | Xrysanthos, Chrisantos |
March 21 | Iakovos (Jacob) |
March 25 | Evangelismos / Evangelos, Eva, Litsa, Lia, Vangelis |
March 27 | Ilarionos, Lydia |
March 31 | Ypatios |
April
April 06 | Eftyxios |
April 15 | Leonidas (Leo, Leonard, Leon) |
April 23 | Georgios, Giorgos, Yorgos (George) |
April 24 | Elisabet (Elisabeth, Lisa) |
April 25 | Marcos (Mark) |
April 28 | Panayotis, Panagiotis, Panos, Panagiota, Pigi* |
May
May 02 | Zoodochos Pigis |
May 03 | Timotheos (Timothy) |
May 05 | Eirinis, Irini (Irene) |
May 06 | Serafim |
May 07 | Akakios |
May 09 | Christoforos (Christopher) |
May 10 | Simonos (Simon) |
May 11 | Kyrillos & Methodos |
May 13 | Sergios, Sergios / Glykerias, Glykeria (Sergio) |
May 15 | Paxomios |
May 17 | Andronikos |
May 18 | Ioulias, Ioulia (Julia, Julie) |
May 19 | Menandrios |
May 21 | Konstantinos & Elenis, Konstantine, Kostas, Tina, Kostantina, Eleni (Helen) |
May 27 | Ioannos Rosos |
May 28 | Tis Analipseos |
May 29 | Theodosias |
May 30 | Isaakios (Isaac) |
June
June 2 | Nikiforos |
June 4 | Marthas & Marias, Martha |
June 5 | Dorotheos (Dorothea, Dorothy) |
June 7 | Sevastianis (Sebastian) |
June 8 | Kalliopis (Calliope) |
June 11 | Vartholomaios (Bartholomew, Bart) / Varnava |
June 19 | Paisios |
June 22 | Zinonos |
June 29 | Petros & Paulos, Petros, Pavlos (Peter, Paul, Pavel) |
June 30 | Synaxi ton 12 Apostolon, Apostolis, Apostolos |
July
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August
August 06 | Sotiris, Sotiria |
August 07 | Asterios, Asteria |
August 15 | Assumption Day – Koimisis tis Theotokos, Maria, Despina, Thespina, Marios (Mary, Marie) |
August 24 | Kosma tos Aitolos |
August 26 | Andrianos & Natalias, Adrianos, Nathalia, Natalia (Adrian, Natalie) |
August 27 | Fanourios, Fanouria |
August 30 | Alexandros, Alexandra (Alexandra, Sandra, Sander, Alexander) |
September
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October
October 01 | Ananios / Pomanos Melodos |
October 02 | Kyprianos / Iostiounis |
October 03 | Dionisios Aeropagitos, Dionisos, Dionysus |
October 04 | Ierotheos |
October 05 | Xaritinis |
October 06 | Thoma (Thomas, Tom) |
October 07 | Polychronios |
October 08 | Pelagias, Pelagia |
October 09 | Iakovos (Jacob) |
October 10 | Eflampios |
October 15 | Loskianos |
October 18 | Loska, Loskas (Lucas, Luke) |
October 19 | Kleopatras (Cleo) |
October 20 | Artemios / Gerasimos Kefallinias, Yerasimos |
October 21 | Sokratous, Sokrates, Sokratis |
October 23 | Iakovos (Jacob) |
October 24 | Sevastianis (Sebastian) |
October 26 | Dimitrios Myrovlitos, Dimitris, Dimitrios, Dimitria (Jim, James) |
October 27 | Nestoros |
October 28 | Agias Skepis |
October 30 | Zinovios |
November
November 01 | Ag. Anarron/ Kosma & Damianos, Anargiros, Argiris, Kosmas, Damianos (Damian) |
November 08 | Michail & Gavriel, Michalis, Michail, Michali, Angelos, Stamatis, Stamos (Michael, Angelo, Gabriel) |
November 09 | Nektarios |
November 11 | Mina / Viktoros (Victor) |
November 13 | Ioannos Chrysostomos |
November 14 | Filippos, Philippos (Philip) |
November 16 | Mathaios (Matthias, Matthew) |
November 18 | Platonos |
November 21 | Eisodia tis Theotokos, Despina, Maria |
November 22 | Filimonos |
November 25 | Merkourios / Aikaterinis, Katerina (Catherine, Kate) |
November 26 | Stylianos, Stella, Stelios |
November 27 | Nathanail (Nate, Nathaniel) |
November 30 | Andrea, Andreas (Andrew, Andre) |
December
December 01 | Theoklitos |
December 02 | Myropis |
December 04 | Varvaras, Barbara |
December 05 | Savva, Savas |
December 06 | Nikolaos, Nikos (Nicholas, Nick) |
December 07 | Amvrosios, Ambrosius (Ambrose) |
December 09 | Agias Annis, Anna |
December 12 | Spyridonos, Spyros |
December 13 | Efstratios / Loskias, Stratos, Stratis, Lucia |
December 15 | Eleftherios, Eleftheria, Lefteris |
December 17 | Daniel / Dionysios Zakunthos, Dionysos |
December 18 | Sevastianos & Zois |
December 19 | Aglaias |
December 20 | Ignatios (Ignatius) |
December 21 | Themistokleous, Ioulia, Julia, Julie |
December 22 | Anastasias, Anastasia |
December 24 | Evgenias, Evyenia |
December 25 | Christmas Day, Christos, Chrissa, Chrisanthi, Christina |
December 26 | Emmanouil / Synaxi Theotokos, Manolis, Manuella, Emma (Emmanuel, Manny) |
December 27 | Stefanos, Stephania (Steven, Stephen, Stefan, Stephanie) |
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