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- Origin: Greek Ἀτρεύς
- Meaning: “to not tremble; fearless.”
- Gender: masculine
- Pronunciation: Eng (AY-tree-us); Grek (ah-TRAY-oos)
The name is composed of the Greek elements, ἀ-, “no” and τρέω, “tremble,” hence meaning, “fearless.”
The name is borne in Greek mythology by the son of Pelops & Hippodamia and the father of Agammennon & Menelaus. Atreus and his brother were expelled from their kingdom after killing their elder brother for the throne. Atreus took refuge in Mycenae where he sat-in as a temporary king while Eurystheus was fighting in a war, but ultimately, Atreus took over the the throne. His descendants thereafter are known as Atreides.
In Frank Herbert’s Dune Series, House of Atreides is the name of one of the great houses.
The name has recently entered the U.S. Top 1000 in 2019, currently ranking in as the 788th most popular name in the United States.
Other forms include:
- Atreüs (Breton)
- Atreu (Catalan, Portuguese, Romanian)
- Atreus (Dutch, English, German, Latin, Scandinavian)
- Atrée (French)
- At’revsi ატრევსი (Georgian)
- Atreusz (Hungarian, Polish)
- Atreos Ατρέας (Modern Greek)
- Atreifur (Icelandic)
- Atreo (Italian, Spanish)
- Atrėjas (Lithuanian)
- Atrey Атрей (Russian, Ukrainian)
- Atrej (Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian)
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