- Origin: Greek Πτολεμαῖος
- Meaning: “aggressive, warlike.”
- Gender: Male
- Eng (PTAHL-e-mee, TAHL-e-mee)
Derived from the ancient Greek male name Πτολεμαῖος (Ptolemaios), which in turn comes from πτόλεμος (ptólemos), meaning “war” or “battle.”
The word ptólemos is an older Aeolic dialectal form of πόλεμος (pólemos), the standard Classical Greek word for “war,” sharing the same root with the English word, “polemic.”
Ptolemy I Soter (367–283 BCE) was a general of Alexander the Great and later became Pharaoh of Egypt, founding the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323–30 BCE). This dynasty ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries and ended with Cleopatra VII, the most famous bearer of the family’s legacy.
Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) (2nd century CE) was the famed Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer of Alexandria, whose Almagest shaped Western astronomy for over a millennium.
According to the Book of 1 Maccabees (135/4 BC), Ptolemy of Jericho betrayed his father-in-law, Simon the High Priest, by murdering him and his two sons while they slept as guests under his roof. This act of treachery is used in Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno, in which the ninth circle of Hell is called Ptolomea after him, a frozen realm reserved for those who betray their guests.
Ptolomy is also the name of an early Christian saint.
In the English-speaking world, Ptolomy has been used on and off since the 18th-century. It appeared in the U.K’s top 500 boys’ names in 2004, ranking in at #906.
A modern bearer is American author, Ptolemy Tompkins. Celebrity couple Gretchen Mol and Tod Williams bestowed this on their son in 2007.
Common English short forms include: Tollie, Tolly, and Tal.
International Variations
- Butlimus بطليموس (Arabic)
- Ptghomeos Պտղոմեոս (Armenian)
- Ptaljemej Пталемей (Belarusian)
- Ptolemej Птолемей (Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Ukrainian)
- Ptolemeu, Tolomeu (Catalan)
- Ptolomeos ⲡⲧⲟⲗⲉⲙⲉⲟⲥ (Coptic)
- Ptolemy (Another English form)
- Ptolémée (French)
- Tolomaes (Gaelic)
- Ptolomeu (Galician, Occitanian, Romanian)
- Ptolemäus (German)
- Ptolemaiosz (Hungarian)
- Ptólmæos (Icelandic)
- Tolomeo (Italian, Spanish)
- Tolommeo (Italian)
- Ptolomaeus (Latin)
- Ptolemajs (Latvian)
- Ptolemėjus (Lithuanian)
- Ptolomey, Ptolomej Птолемей (Macedonian, Russian)
- Tolomé (Piedmontese)
- Ptolomeusz (Polish)
- Ptolomeu (Portuguese)
- Ptolemæus (Scandinavian)
- Ptolomaidh (Scottish-Gaelic)
- Tulumeu (Sicilian)
- Ptolomaj (Slovenian)
- Ptolemeo, Ptolomeo (Spanish)
- Batlamyus (Turkish)
Female forms include the sensual Ptolemaïs (Πτολεμαΐς) and the Italian, Tolomea.
Sources
The name is derived from an Arabic honorific title حكيم that can have several different meanings. The name roughly translates as “sage” or “wise” but it can also mean “physician” or “philosopher” and is often used to denote a doctor, judge or someone highly educated in a particular scientific field in the Arabic world.
Gender: Feminine
Gender: Feminine
The name was also borne by a legendary Egyptian Christian saint who was believed to have originally been a prostitute. She was converted by St. Paphnutius who had disguised himself as a “customer.” Thaïs became a fervent Christian, abandoning her comfortable life as a high-end prostitute and spending three years in repentance eventually dying in peace as a hermit in the Egyptian desert. Her story is the inspiration behind the Anatole France novel Thaïs (1890) which was later adapted into an opera of the same name. Demetre Chiparus famous sculpture, Thaïs, was in turn inspired by the Opera.
Due to the cult of St. Thaïs of Egypt, the name remained in use throughout the former Byzantine Empire. She was used to a certain extent on the continent and in 18th-century England during the Romantic Period.