The name is composed of the Greek words, ἱερός (holy to; sacred to) and θεός (God). It first appears as a given name in Christian tradition, being borne by the first bishop of Athens who was said to have been converted and trained by St. Paul himself.
The modern Greek form is ‘Ierotheos and the designated name-day in Greece is September 29th.
The name has also been borne by several Greek patriarchs.
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.
Chariton is an ancient Greek masculine name derived from χάρις (charis), meaning “grace, kindness, favor.”
The name was borne by Saint Chariton the Confessor (4th century), a revered Christian monk and founder of several monasteries in the Judaean Desert. His feast day is observed in the Eastern Orthodox Church on September 28.
Chariton also appears in classical Greek literature as a personal name. It was the name of a 1st-century Greek writer.
The feminine form of Charitine (Χαριτίνη) is the feminine counterpart, and it was latinized as Charitina. An English pronuncitation would be KARE-e-TEE-nee (Grk), and KARE-e-TEE-nah or KARE-e-TIE-nuh).
Saint Charitine of Rome (also known as Charitina, 4th century) is a virgin martyr honored in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Churches. The feast day and designated name-day is October 8th.
Charitina was later borne by a Medieval Russian Orthodox saint of Lithuania. Very little is known of her hagiography other than her being an indigenous Lithuanian woman who was born pagan but later converted to Christianity.
Female International Variations
Haritina خاريتينا / حاريتينا (Arabic, mainly used among Arab-speaking Christians)
The name ultimately comes from Greek Νεῖλος (Neílos), the ancient Greek name of the River Nile.
In Ancient Egyptian, the river was called jtr-w (Iteru, “Great River”). The Greek form Neílos may reflect a Semitic root n-h-r, meaning “river,” which is also the source of Hebrew nahar and related words.
In Greek mythology, Neilos was personified as the river-god of the Nile, one of the Potamoi (river deities).
The Latinized form Nilus became a well-known monastic name and is borne by several Christian saints, including St. Nilus the Syrian, a disciple of St. John Chrysostom, and St. Nilus of Sinai.
Nil is the Slavic form used for males. In Turkey, the same name arose independently as a female given name of the same etymology.
In Italian, it may also be used as a short form ofDanilo.
An Italian feminine form is Nila.
Nile is an English name that was often used in reference to the surname. It may make an interesting modern adaptation for parents looking for a cool but modern saints name.
The name appears in Greek mythology. It is connected to a woman who killed herself when her love for Demophon was not returned. She was transformed into an almond or hazelnut tree, depending on the legend. It comes directly from the Greek word, Φυλλίς, meaning, “leaves, foliage,” which shares a root with the words chlorophyll and phyllotaxis. Its Turkish form of Filiz comes from the same root but the meaning slightly changes to “sprout; root.”
It also appears as the name of a minor river god of Bithynia.
It came into widespread use in England in the 16th-century and later spread to the rest of the Anglosphere.
Early Puritan records occasionally include Phyllis/Phillis, reflecting classical learning even among settlers. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), the first published African-American female poet, is a striking historical bearer.
An 18th-century English short form was Lissie or Lissy.
It frequently appears in Elizabethan and Restoration poetry and drama. Poets such as Ben Jonson and Andrew Marvell used “Phyllis” as a stock name for a beloved in pastoral verse. Later modernists like Ezra Pound continued this tradition. This usage helped keep it familiar to English speakers for centuries.
It marked its presence in baroque operas (e.g., Handel’s Acis and Galatea includes a character named Phyllis) and in folk songs of the British Isles.
Victorian painters of the Pre-Raphaelite school sometimes chose the Phyllis and Demophon story for mythological canvases.
In the United States, it appeared in the Top 100 Female Names between 1915-1958, peaking at #24 in 1929. In the U.K., it came in at #14 in 1914, #4 in New Zealand in 1911, and #29 in 1922 in Canada.
Its Turkish offshoot of Filiz appeared in the Turkish Top 100 between 1980-1996, peaking at #11 between 1980-1982.
Today, the name is considered dated in the English-speaking world.
Phillyda, pronounced /ˈfɪl.ɪ.də/ in English is an alternate form.
The name is derived from the Greek genitive λέοντος (leontos), meaning, “belonging to a lion; lion-like.”
It was borne by an 8th-century Byzantine emperor and several saints.
The designated name-day is January 13th.
An early English form is perhaps, Leontes, which appears in Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale (1610).
Léonce is its unisex French form. It appeared in the French Top 1000 Male Names between 1900-1969, and peaked at #95 in 1909. It simultaneously appeared in the French Top 1000 Female Names between 1900-1940 and peaked at #187 in 1915.
Léonce also appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 Male Names between 1887-1895, peaking at #819 in 1887.
Another possible female off-shoot is Léontine – popular in France from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, it is pronounced [le.ɔ̃.tin]. It is debated whether it is a direct feminine form of Leontius or related to a Latin source meaning, “from Lentini.” A future entry will be written completely dedicated to Léontine.
S.L. Uckelman. “Leontius”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Leontius
The name is from the classical Greek, related toApollo. It was borne by several early Christian saints. The most notable being St. Apollinaris of Ravenna, a Syrian Christian missionary to Ravenna who was martyred there and thereafter became the city’s patron saint.
The French form Apollinaire is linked to the Franco-Polish poet, Guillaume Apollinaire. He lived from 1880 to 1918. He was born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki.
Apolinary was common in Poland during the late 19th-century and early 20th-centuries, it is now obsolete. Diminutives include: Apolinek, Apollinek, Apolin, Apollin, Polin, Polinary, Polinarek, Polinaruś, Poli, and Polik.
In Italy, Apollinare was mainly used in the Romagna region due to it being the name of their patrion saint, but it has since fallen out of use.
Apollinaire sporadically appeared in the French Top 1000 between 1900 and 1926 and peaked at #403 in 1923. In 2024, 5 babies were given this name.
Neither its masculine form nor its feminine form had much usage in the English-speaking world. It was mostly used in families of Greek or Eastern European background during the late 19th-century.
Designated name-days include July 20th, July 23rd, and September 12th
A traditional feminine diminutive form in Russian is Polina. Polish diminutives include: Apollinka, Apollina, Apolinka, Apolla, Apola, Pola, Polka, Polcia, Polina, and Polinka. Modern Greek diminutives include: Nαρία (Naría), Πόλλα (Pólla), or Λίνα (Lina). Potential English short forms would include: Apple, Pollie, Polly, and Narey, or Narie.
Zenobia is composed of the Greek elements, Zeus (Zeus) and bios (life). It was notably borne by a 1st-century Armenian queen of Georgian descent and later a 3rd-Century Queen of Palmyra who tried to expand into Roman territory but was defeated by Emperor Aurelian.
Zenobia of Palmyra’s name might have been a Hellenized form of her birth name, Bat-Zabbai, which is from the Aramaic meaning “daughter of Zabbai.” Zabbai itself is an Aramaic male name. It seems to be a theophoric name, meaning “gift of–.” The latter part refers to an unknown deity. It may have actually been an Aramaic form of the Hebrew female name, Bathsheba.
Speculation has also linked it with the Arabic female name Zaynab, which can either mean “father’s beauty” or be from the name of a type of flowering tree.
It was borne by the 3rd-century martyrs, Ss. Zenobia and Zenobius, two early Christians who were siblings and beheaded under Emperor Diocletian. Their feast and name-day is October 30.
In the English-speaking world, it is first recorded in Cornwall and Devon, England in the 16th-century. Early English forms of Synibie, Sinobie, Senobie, Cenobie, and Cenoby (Sen-e-bee; SIN-e-bee), would make interesting revivals in the spirit of Sydney and Willoughby. A common English diminutive was Nobby.
Zenobia appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Female names between 1881-1925, peaking at #669 in 1909.
Zenobia is no stranger to English literature, it is the name of a character in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Blithedale Romance (1852); Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (1911); and is even used by Anne Rice in her the eighth book of her vampire series, Blood and Gold (2001).
Zenobia “Nobby” Hawthorne appears as a character in the P.G. Wodehouse series, Jeeves.
Tina Fey used this as the middle name of daughter, Alice Zenobia.
S.L. Uckelman. “Zenobia”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Zenobia.
S.L. Uckelman. “Zenobius”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Zenobius.
