# Greek place names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797 "2003-05-27T16:27:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797/1 "2003-05-27T16:27:36Z")
Are there any Greek speakers here? I’m wondering about the “correct” way to transliterate Greek place names into the Roman alphabet. I’ve noticed that names are often spelt with a final “n” in English, when there is no corresponding letter nu in the Greek, for example Iraklion, which in Greek is Ηράκλειο (apologies for those that don’t have Greek fonts installed - a letter-for-letter transliteration would probably be Erákleio). So, are there any hard and fast rules? And if not, why do we stick an “n” on the end when there isn’t one in Greek? I know that a lot of foreign places do have Anglicised names, but I’ve seen this happening with the names of tiny towns which I’m sure have never been known by an “English” name. ---
**Author:** ![ragerdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@ragerdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ragerdude)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797/2 "2003-05-28T02:26:47Z")
Where did you find that spelling? My Baedeker’s Greece spells it “[symbol]HRAKLION[/symbol].” (Furthermore, many –ion nouns in Greek come into Latin as –ium, and from there to English.) Keep in mind that every transliteration is, for the most part, an arbitrary convention. No one scheme of translation is completely natural and obvious, so there are bound to be different preferences. Another question is why Plato[n], Crito[n] and Phaedo[n] lose the ‘n’ when they come into English, and others like Ion, and Ariston doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797/3 "2003-05-28T02:30:42Z")
I think that in some instances this is the result of transliterations coming from the ancient Greek name rather than the Modern name. -on (sorry, unable to do fancy fonts but that’s just an omicron nu) is a common Ancient Greek neuter ending which I believe (I don’t actually know Modern Greek) has lost its nu in Modern Greek. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797/4 "2003-05-28T02:49:34Z")
“Give me any place name…I show you how it comes from Greek!” Sorry…couldn’t resist. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797/5 "2003-05-28T04:24:44Z")
**Melandry** is right. **r\_k** is thinking of the Demotic Modern Greek form of the name, but the transliteration _Iraklion_ is the BGN (Board of Geographic Names) spelling of the Classical Greek orthography, which is more likely to be printed on a map. BGN romanization follows Modern Greek pronunciation, while Library of Congress romanization has a two-tier approach: any item produced up to the year AD 1453 is transliterated according to Classical Greek, while anything from 1453 on is done according to Modern Greek. BGN and Library of Congress are the two main standardized transliteration systems in widespread use today. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-place-names/177797/6 "2003-05-28T13:35:33Z")
I’m sure that’s not one of their favorite years in history.