Achilles

Gender: Male
Origin: Greek
Meaning “pain.”
Eng (uh-KEELZ); (ah-KEEL-leez); Fre (ah-SHEEL); It (ah-KIL-le)

The name of the great Pythian hero of the Trojan war, Achilles was invincible save for the one spot on his heel that was vulnerable to killing him. Achilles was timelessly struck down after a poisoned arrow pierced his heel. Some legends state that his mother, Thetis, had dipped him in the river Styx to render her child immortal. However, since she was holding him by one heel, the waters were unable to pass through her hands onto the area to which she held him.

Achilles’ Heels is a term used to describe a person’s weakness. In anatomy, Achilles Tendon is used to describe a tendon of the posterior leg.

As of 2009, Achille was the 204th most popular male name in France.

Other forms of the name include:

• Akili (Albanian)
• Akiles (Basque)
• Ahilej (Bosnian, Serbo-Croatian)
• Akilles (Breton)
• Aquil·les (Catalan)
• Achilles (Czech/English/Polish)
• Akhilleus (Finnish/Scandinavian: very obscure)
• Achille (French/Italian)
• Achilleus Αχιλλευς (Greek)
• Akhilleusz (Hungarian: obscure)
• Ahillejs (Latvian)
• Achilas (Lithuanian)
• Akille (Maltese)
• Akilles (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish)
• Ahile (Romanian)
• Achilli (Sicilian)
• Ahil (Slovene)
• Aquiles (Spanish/Galician/Portuguese)