Of course!! I’ll just do some random ones that come to mind then (:
A little disclaimer about spelling
It’s kind of complicated when it comes to spelling, because for example, Hera used to be considered the “correct” transliteration of Ήρα, even if it isn’t anymore. However, the pronunciations have always been the same (mostly… some names sounded a bit different in ancient Greek, but still closer to their modern Greek form than their Latin form). I’m going to use the modern Greek spellings because they usually better reflect the pronunciation, but the classic spellings are also valid when it comes to ancient names!
I should break some general small differences into categories!
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There are no H names. Kind of. But basically, if an ancient Greek name starts with H… No it doesn’t
Pronunciation wise at least! E.g., Hera is EE-rah (Ira), Hermes is ehr-MEES (Ermis) and like I mentioned, Hero is ee-RO (Iro). You don’t say the “H” in modern Greek or in many classical Greek dialects, barring the Attic. -
There is no -er! Evander is Evandros, Alexander is Alexandros, Lysander is Lysandros… which reminds me!
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There is no "Y pronounced like “eye”. Lysandros is LEE-sandros / LÜ-sandros and Pythagoras is PEE-thagoras/PÜ-thagoras. The musical instrument “lyra” (lyre) that the constellation Lyra was named after is pronounced LEE-rah / LÜ-rah.
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There are no -us endings. Those are all Latin! The originals are usually -os, e.g., Dionysus is Dionysos, Telemachus is Telemachos, Patroclus is Patroclos. They can also be -as, e.g. Perseus is Perseas, Theseus is Theseas.
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There is no “eu pronounced like you”. Eulalia is pronounced ehv-lah-LEE-ah in modern Greek. We would spell the name Evlalia. “Eu” can also make an “ef” sound, e.g., Euphemia would be written Effimia. In old ancient Greek (before 300 bc) “Eu” would have made an eh-ü sound.
- “I” is always pronounced “ee”. Iris is EE-rees, Aphrodite is ah-fro-DHEE-tee. Calliope is kah-LYO-pee
An example that combines multiple rules: In Greek, Hyacinthus (also anglicised as Hyacinth) would be pronounced Iakinthos (ee-AH-keen-thos), because the H is often silent, the “y” is not pronounced “eye”, and the -us is actually an -os.
Some Latinised Greek names & the Greek form of them!
Apollo → Apollon
Jason → Iason
Hestia → Estia
Helen → Eleni
Achilles → Achilleas
Niobe → Niovi
Aristotle → Aristotelis
Agatha → Agathi / Agathe
Berenice → Vereniki
Alcyone → Alkyoni
Olympia → Still Olympia… but pronounced Olybia!!
Demeter → Dimitra
Eugenia → Evgenia, pronounced Evyenia
Hecuba / Hekabe → Ekavi
Hecate - Ekati
Circe → Kirki
Cybele → Kyveli
Atalanta → Atalanti / Atalante
Sappho → Sapfo
Urania → Ourania (ooh-rah-NEE-ah)
Lilaea → Lilaia / Lilea
Jocasta → Iokasti / Iokaste
Euphrosyne → Effrosyni / Effrosyne
Eurydice → Evrydiki / Evrydike
Orpheus → Orfeas
Homer → Omiros
Euclid → Efklidis
I’m sure there are more, but I’m running out of brain power now I hope these are good enough examples!
Made some edits according to my latest post in the thread 