St. Nicholas Who?

[Peter_Morris]

Is the family name of the historical St. Nicholas known? Did he even have a family name, or was it just Nicholas?

[don_t_ask]

D’Pederast

[naita]

Doesn’t look like he had one, which (I think) wouldn’t be surprising for the era:

In the Roman Empire, the bestowal and use of clan and family names waxed and waned with changes in the various subcultures of the realm. (See Roman naming conventions.) At the outset, they were not strictly inherited in the way that family names are inherited in many cultures today. Eventually, though, family names began to be used in a manner similar to most modern European societies. With the gradual influence of Greek/Christian culture throughout the Empire, the use of formal family names declined. By the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, family names were uncommon in the Eastern Roman (i.e. Byzantine) Empire.

Surname - Wikipedia - my emphasis

[Quartz]

There’s St Nicholas of Myrna.

[Captain_Amazing]

Myra, not Myrna. But that wasn’t a last name so much as where he lived (he was Bishop of Myra). He also is sometimes called Nicholas of Bari, because 1087, his bones were taken there and they’re still there today.

[handsomeharry]

@don_t_ask

D’Pederast

Winner!

[Polycarp]

What’s known is in the Wikipedia entry thatQuartz links to. Greek people of Nicholas’ day did not use surnames, but rather patronymics (“John son of Harold” not “John Miller”), which would mean his full formal name to his contemporaries would probably have been Nikolaos Epiphanides.

[Peter_Morris]

Thank you Polycarp. A very helpful and interesting answer, as always.