Editing Greeks (section)

===Surnames and personal names===
{{see also|Greek name|Ancient Greek personal names}}

Greek surnames began to appear in the 9th and 10th century, at first among ruling families, eventually supplanting the ancient tradition of using the father's name as disambiguator.<ref name=Wickham>{{harvnb|Wickham|2005|p=237}}.</ref><ref name="lexicon"/> Nevertheless, Greek surnames are most commonly patronymics,<ref name=Wickham/> such those ending in the suffix ''-opoulos'' or ''-ides'', while others derive from trade professions, physical characteristics, or a location such as a town, village, or monastery.<ref name="lexicon"/> Commonly, Greek male surnames end in -s, which is the common ending for Greek masculine [[proper nouns]] in the [[nominative case]]. Occasionally (especially in Cyprus), some surnames end in ''-ou'', indicating the [[genitive case]] of a patronymic name.<ref>{{harvnb|Fong|2004|p=39}}.</ref> Many surnames end in suffixes that are associated with a particular region, such as ''-akis'' (Crete), ''-eas'' or ''-akos'' ([[Mani Peninsula]]), ''-atos'' (island of [[Cephalonia]]), ''-ellis'' (island of [[Lesbos]]) and so forth.<ref name="lexicon"/> In addition to a Greek origin, some surnames have Turkish or Latin/Italian origin, especially among Greeks from [[Asia Minor]] and the [[Ionian Islands]], respectively.<ref>{{harvnb|Koliopoulos|1987|p=xii}}.</ref> Female surnames end in a vowel and are usually the genitive form of the corresponding males surname, although this usage is not followed in the diaspora, where the male version of the surname is generally used.

With respect to personal names, the two main influences are Christianity and classical Hellenism; ancient Greek nomenclatures were never forgotten but have become more widely bestowed from the 18th century onwards.<ref name="lexicon">{{cite web|title=The Transition of Modern Greek Names|work=Lexicon of Greek Personal Names|publisher=Oxford University|url=http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/modern.html|access-date=10 May 2016|archive-date=22 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722065202/http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/modern.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> As in antiquity, children are customarily named after their grandparents, with the first born male child named after the paternal grandfather, the second male child after the maternal grandfather, and similarly for female children.<ref>{{cite web|title=Naming practices|work=Lexicon of Greek Personal Names|publisher=Oxford University|url=http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/practices.html|access-date=16 October 2016|archive-date=16 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816211449/http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/practices.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Personal names are often familiarized by a diminutive suffix, such as ''-akis'' for male names and ''-itsa'' or ''-oula'' for female names.<ref name="lexicon"/> Greeks generally do not use middle names, instead using the genitive of the father's first name as a middle name. This usage has been passed on to the [[Russian names|Russians]] and other [[East Slavs]] ([[otchestvo]]).