Alternative Baby Names

Today I hit my 12 week marker with a sigh of relief, for 84 days now I’ve been sat (mostly by the toilet bowl) in hiding, privately incubating and biding my time until we felt comfortably safe enough to share our news: We’re expecting baby number 2!

I’d like to say it’s been fun keeping our exciting news a secret but, like around half of all pregnant women I’ve been experiencing the first trimester vom initiation and like more than 80% of women I’ve just felt continuously nauseous and down right crappy.

However, with it being the second time round having the experience has helped immensely with knowing what to expect as well as having a few tricks in the bag to help combat those low days and while away the time.  The main picker upper being searching for possible baby names. Something I didn’t have the opportunity to do first time around.

My husband is Greek and traditionally Greek children are named after their grandparents. Depending on what region you are from tends to change the order but it’s general practice that the first son is named after the paternal grandfather. Despite not being fanatically set to old school ideals, when we discussed getting married and having kids Mr. O did confess that he had always wanted to honour his *father in this way and so a deal was struck; he would name the first boy and second girl and I would name the first girl and second boy, meaning no matter what I’d always get to name the second child.

If you’re in the same boat as me ( up the duff that is and not necessarily married to a Greek) and looking for some unusual baby name alternatives, then here’s a quick list of Greek (Anglo friendly) names that I’ve compiled during my own hunt.

A

Agapi-(f) Meaning love

Aesop-(m) A famous 6th Century Greek fablist

E

Eirini-(f) Meaning peace

Euripedes-(m) A famous 5th century Greek poet

I

Ioannis-(m) Greek/Hebrew variation of the name John

Iro-(f) Meaning hero(ine)

K

Kallias-(m) This was the name of an Athenian who fought at Marathon who later became an ambassador to the Persians

Kallisto-(f) Meaning most beautiful

L

Leontios-(m) Meaning lion

Lysandra-(f) Meaning man’s defender

M

Melitta-(f) Derives from the name Melissa, meaning bee

Myron-(m) Meaning sweet oil, perfume. Myron was the name of a 5th-century BC Greek sculptor

N

Niki-(f) Meaning victory

Neleus-(m) Meaning patient

O

Oneiros-(m) a personification of dream. According to Homer, dreams dwell on the dark shores of the western Oceans. The deceitful dreams would come through an ivory gate, while the true ones issue from a gate made of horns

Olympia-(f) From mount Olympus; home of the ancient Greek Gods

P

Phili-(f) Meaning lover, friend

Plato-(m) meaning broad-shouldered. Plato was one of the most important of the Greek philosophers. He was a pupil of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle

S

Straton-(m) Meaning army

Sapfo-(f) Meaning sapphire

T

Tassos-(m) Derives from the name Anastasios but now stands alone as a name in its own right.

Thalia-(f) Meaning to flourish

V

Veronika-(f) Meaning honest

Vasiliss-(m) Meaning regal (king)

X

Xanthi-(f) Meaning fair haired

Xenon-(m) Meaning foreigner or guest

Z

Zeno-(m) Derives from the name Zeus (God)

Zephyra-(f) Meaning west wind

If you have any unique ways of searching for baby names, get in touch: enquiries@booberrit.com

*Despite popular belief and even absolute strangers trying to mockingly tell our little boy his parents are avid Game of Throne fans, our son was not named after a character who had his willy chopped off! He was named Διόνυσης pronounced ‘Theonisis’, which our English family shorten to Theon (as it’s less of a mouthful- well it Is all Greek to us!).

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