Greek Last Name Generator

Greek surnames are young by European standards, mostly fixed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and almost all of them are built from a recognizable piece plus a suffix that tells you where the family came from. The suffix -opoulos ('son of', from Latin pullus) marks the Peloponnese: Papadopoulos is 'son of the priest', Nikolopoulos 'son of Nikolaos'. Crete adds -akis, a diminutive ('little'), giving Kazantzakis and Theodorakis. The -idis and -iadis endings (Nikolaidis, Georgiadis) belong to Pontic Greeks and Macedonia; -atos (Metaxatos, Livieratos) is Kefalonian; -akos and -eas come from the Mani; -ellis from Lesbos; -oglou is the Turkish 'son of' carried by families who left Asia Minor in 1923.

The first half of a surname usually records an ancestor's name, job or nickname. Papa- means a priest, Hatzi-/Chatzi- a pilgrim to Jerusalem, Kara- (Turkish for 'black') a dark-haired ancestor, Mavro- and Kokkino- 'black' and 'red', Kontos 'short', Makris 'tall', Raptis 'tailor', Psaltis 'cantor', Mylonas 'miller', Vlachos a shepherd from the Vlach communities.

Remember that Greek women carry the genitive form: Papadopoulou, Nikolaidou, Kazantzaki. The list here gives the masculine forms, so switch the ending when naming a female character.