Here’s another version of “If you’d marry someone…” This time it’s if you’d happen to marry a Greek person and you’d want to honour their heritage through the names you choose for your kids, how would you name them? You can have as many kids with as many mn and fn as you like but they have to be Greek (names of Greek origin that have been altered in other languages count too). Here are mine:
Boy: [name_m]Cosmo[/name_m] [name_m]Alexander[/name_m]
Girl: [name_f]Penelope[/name_f] [name_f]Cora[/name_f]
Second Girl: [name_f]Natasa[/name_f] [name_f]Persephonie[/name_f]
Not even close to Greek, and have never been, but I have been (many, many times) to [name_m]Cyprus[/name_m], which is close enough for me to have thought about this a lot…
Most of the names have a ‘reason’ for me choosing them. [name_m]Cyprian[/name_m] is fairly obviously related to [name_m]Cyprus[/name_m] and [name_m]Nikolas[/name_m] is related to Nicosia, the Cypriot capital. [name_f]Aphrodite[/name_f] is the goddess of love, a symbol of [name_m]Cyprus[/name_m], said to have rose from the waters on the coast of Paphos, my favourite part of the country. [name_f]Magdalena[/name_f] is actually my great-great-grandmother and [name_u]Petrini[/name_u] is for my dad, [name_m]Peter[/name_m]. The others just happen to be names that I like.
I have Greek Cypriot background and each of my children has a Greek first or middle (except one who has two middles). I have used [name_m]Zakarias[/name_m] (not a favourite really, my mum’s choice), Demitris, Yiannis (not a favourite either but supposed to be an honour name for Johns in family), [name_u]Artemis[/name_u], Lefteris, and Elefteria (yeah, last two are the same- can you tell I didn’t go into parenthood with a list or plan?).
I love it also and wondered why it seems so obscure! Am not sure how much it is used in [name_m]Cyprus[/name_m] either (?), I have only come across Eleftherios there, which is rather less user friendly!