# Did the Ancient Greeks have family names?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 21, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914 "2011-12-21T03:03:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914/21 "2011-12-24T23:01:17Z")

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Hmm, okay I was clearly off-target on the “no duplicates” thing. And I should have noticed the edes/ides ending is quite common, so that’s the equivalent of mac, o’ or \_\_\_son. I still wonder if there’s some sort of set of rules they had. If Archimedes was son of Archim, say, can he call his own son Archimedesedes ? Plus of course the ancient Greeks had a variety of cultures, it may have been different in say Sparta, Athens and Rhodes.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914/22 "2011-12-24T23:10:35Z")

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And although they were Macedonians, there were several kings named [Philip](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_of_Macedon).

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**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914/23 "2011-12-25T23:14:01Z")

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Paradoxically, there were a couple of famous Zenos, too.

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914/24 "2011-12-26T05:23:19Z")

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Just for the record, Plato is a nickname (Platon=broad or thick. His wrestling coach named him that, either because he had broad shoulders or a big forehead). His actual name was Aristocles.

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-ancient-greeks-have-family-names/606914/25 "2011-12-26T05:41:26Z")

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> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Paradoxically, there were a couple of famous Zenos, too.

Hating puns, I’m a hypocrite to point this out, but there were too famous Hippocrates, two.

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