1Α: Names – Paideia Institute

In Modern Greek, many names have endings that are similar to the endings of nouns. On the one hand, most male names end in -ος, -ας, or -ης. On the other hand, most feminine names end in -α or -η.

This means that most male names look like these:

ο Όμηρος / ο Νίκος	like ο άνθρωπος
ο Πυθαγόρας / ο Ηλίας	like ο ταμίας
ο Σωκράτης / ο Δημήτρης	like ο στρατιώτης

Most feminine names look like these:

η Αθηνά / η Νικολέττα	like η χώρα
η Αλκμήνη / η Νίκη	η θήκη

Important!

However, some names in Modern Greek are a bit more peculiar, and have endings that look more ancient than modern, like -ων or -ις. Take a look at the following:

Masculine (-ων)	Feminine (-ις)	Feminine (-ώ)
ο Σόλων, ο Πλάτων, ο Ιάσων	η Ίρις, η Άρτεμις, η Θέμις	η Ερατώ, η Μυρτώ

Sometimes, some of these names can change their endings a bit to look more like Modern Greek, and less like Ancient Greek.

η Ίρις →	η Ίριδα
η Άρτεμις →	η Άρτεμη
ο Σόλων →	ο Σόλωνας
ο Πλάτων →	ο Πλάτωνας
ο Ιάσων →	Ιάσονας

The names in -ω, however, remain the same, like η Ερατώ or η Ηρώ.