Macedonian Names!!

[smittysmitty]

Any thoughts on why the lack of original names amongst Macedonians, seems to be an abundance of Philips, Alexanders,Amyntas, Perdiccas' etc.Were these names used for official occassions, or used on a day to day basis?I find it comical, the very real potential of having a room full of Alexanders,son of Philip at hand! How would it be possible for them to communicate...(would have been particularly funny during a press confrence).Surely their must be something more to this!Arrhidaeus, had his name changed to Philip? I can see that with his lack luster background, the need to build an image ( through name) was inflicted upon him by the power brokers, but still, he was king,and as king surely had the power to keep his own name??Olympias, name change from Myrtale? as a result of marriage to Philip and a victory at the Olympic games?Any one care to comment, there thoughts ware welcomed.Cheers!

[beausefaless]

Would you believe they had nicknames?

[nick]

Hi Smitty -I was born in what was then a small village in Holland. The majority of prominent villagers shared one of only three family surnames: "Schaapherder", or "Calis", or "Majoor". Combined with very common Dutch first names as "Jan" (John) or "Kees" (Keith) there were at least a few individuals who shared the name "Jan Schaapherder" or "Kees Majoor" within that same modest village. My family didn't share a local name as such. We were 'immigrants', hailing from Amsterdam. The Schaapherders, Calises and Majoors made up some 40%-50% of the population. Or, at least, it felt that way.I am less than 0% (zero) scientific here. But I would argue that sharing common names is some sort of an indication we are dealing with a rural, village like, peasant society (until Philip and Alexander came along). The last Macedonian ruler was called Perseus... Was that an indigenous name?I'm sorry if I wasted your time reading this reply. I just thought your question was so very, very, very amusing. It just begged for an answer. I think posting a question like yours requires a sharp state of mind. You're an original.Best regards -
Nick

[susan]

When I was doing my family history, I found that in a small English village in the 1700s, of maybe 200-300 people, there were 7 men named Percival Chandler alive at one time. In each branch of the family, in each generation, a son was named Percival - and this applied to other family names as well. They used nicknames to sort it out, and I'm sure the Macedonians did so too. I agree with Nick, it was probably a rural habit.Susan

[smittysmitty]

hi nick susan, and beaucef,I quite agree with the rural implications and the limited use/need for names in a village context.And,Iknow that in my own family history, up until the late 1950's, a families surname was asserted from the patriarch, i.e, james, now as husband and father, gave the name of james to his family.I guess, I'm a little astonished, that in a period or three or four centuries, of Macedonian history,amongst a population of hundreds of thousands that we are handed down a minimal list of original names. I will admit, that post ATG's death, the emergence of a wider variety of names is quite apparant.Regarding the rural implication of minimalistic names, I would suggest the vast majority of named people in Macedonian history, more likely than not,
were city slickers! Always found this a puzzling aspect of Macedonian history!Cheer!

[alejandro]

hii don't know much about "ordinary people"'s name in ancient macedonia, but the perdiccases, philips and alexanders are all "royal" names. ie, they were "exclusive" names, not to be used by common people. they were like "guarantee labels" that ensured their royal claims. i assume (not sure at all) that bastards or sons of lower marriages (like philip had several) were not given these royal names (as an aside, since arrhidaios is not a very common "royal" name, could it be a good indication that he was not reared to rule? would it be a good sign that he was halfwit from birth? or just the fact that he was born of a "foreigner" (i'm not even sure this is the case, and in any case, olympias was a foreigner too)?)
also, and i don't know if this is exclusive of royalty, or rather an extended practice then, it was quite common to name your children by using your father's name or your wife's father's name or some other relative's name. heckel (marshals of alexander's empire) uses this method several times to even determine the order of children of a given person (seems that there were some "rules", say -i'm not saying this is the "right" order, just giving an example-: first child named after maternal grandfather, second after paternal, and so on).
also, i read somewhere (i don't remember the source, so i'm not sure of its validity) that sometimes, when a son died, the next son would be named after the dead one, to keep the name.
best wishesalejandro

[Tre]

Arrhidaeus was an Argead family name - there is no indication that Ari was mentally challenged at birth. In fact, it is Plutarch who says he was normal and of pleasant personality as a child, but suggests that there was a rumor that Olympiada poisoned him. That is of course ridiculous, but in the PR wars between Cassander and Olympiada, it would certainly have been brought up. He probably came down with a childhood illness and suffered brain damage. One must remember that fevers could not be controlled in that time, and the high body temperatures caused by an illness could easily have injured his brain. Note one ancient author suggests he had fits like an epileptic which suggests damage to the brain. How limited his intelligence was, is however, up to debate.Regards,Tre

[panos]

Hello everybodyThe Macedonians always used an adjective immediatelly after the name of the person. It could either deriving from the name of the father or by a property this person was known. This can be clearly seen in the Ptolemies that formed the Ptolemeic Dynasty in Egypt. The General of Alexander was called "Lagou" because he was son of Lagos, in Egypt acquired the name "Soter" (=savior) and his successors were named as follows: Ptolemeus (II) Philadelphos (Philos=friend, adelfos=brother), Ptolemeus (III) Evergetis (=benefactor), Ptolemeus (IV) Philopater (Philos=friend, pater=father), Ptolemeus (V) Epiphanes (Prominent-distinguished), Ptolemeus (VI)Philometor (Philos=friend, metor=mother), Ptolemeus (XII) Auletes (aulos=flute) and up to the last of the Ptolemies (XIV)we see combinations of these names. For the women similar definitions were used (Arsinoe II Philadelphos, Cleopatra III of Egypt Euergetes, Cleopatra IV Selene (selene=moon)).I refer to this dynasty not only because of their origins but also because the records of the Ptolemies were quite reliable. The situation must have been similar in the homeland.Greetings
Panos P.S. I think that the sources reffer to Phillip Arideus only as "Arideus".

[marcus]

A direct parallel can be made with the Medieval period, too. In England, for example, there was a preponderance of Williams, Richards, Roberts, Henries, and slightly fewer Edwards and the occasional John. There was only a minority who had other names (such as Odo, Aymer, etc.).Families tended to keep the same two or three names, usually giving a first son his grandfather's name, and the second his father's; and then bringing in maternal grandfathers etc. (although of course these were usually drawn from a small pool of names, too). The influx of other names was very gradual, and is only seen in the later Medieval period.People were differentiated by toponyms and nicknames, and in the non-noble classes of course by their professions (whence we get modern surnames such as Smith, Cooper, etc.). But they would also have used contractions and other variants to differentiate themselves: Will, Rob, Robin, etc.The other thing in the Medieval period which seems to accord quite closely with the Ancient world was the informality of the court. Contrary to what one hears in historical films and reads in [less good] historical novels, the king was very rarely referred to as "Sire" or "My Lord", but by his christian name. Knowledge of his rank was enough.All the bestMarcus

[ss]

But what about with those with not so noble names- as Craterus, Leonnatus, Philotas?

[panos]

SandraI dont think these names were less noble. They are names indicating the property of the individual. Crateros=powerful-robust, Philotas=friendly to the ears-friendly ears ecc.
Usually the surname was given by the name of the father pe Philotas Parmenionos ecc. This is evident from all the burial stones found.
Without beeing an expert on this topic, the name was probably given to the individual 2-3 yrs after birth, because infants were referred to only with the fathers name or anathems.Panos

[davej]

I think I am with yoou on this one Andrew. the Romans had a similar problem. They had only Twelve first names, Gaius, Gnaius, Tiberius etc. and the problem was further complicated by the fact that some daughters had to share the feminised version of daddy's name. The Poor girls end up beig number hence names like Secondia and Tertia (two and Three). Nevertheless every body seemed to know who everybody was. I would say much the same applies in MAcedon. Nick name would be the order of the day.