Daddy's War: Greek American Stories

Appendix A: A Note on Greek Names and Naming

[ Appendix A ] A Note on Greek Names and Naming It might help to know before studying the family trees that follow that Greek Christian tradition dictates that parents will name their children after those children’s grandparents, usually starting with the paternal grandfather. This is the way my own father was named: John George Kacandes ; his paternal grandfather’s first name was John and his own father ’s name was George. Even if you are not Greek, you may have guessed at this tradition from a comical scene in the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. At one point the parents of the non-Greek boyfriend are being introduced to the family of the Greek American protagonist. All the males—brother, cousins, uncles—appear to be named Nick. My Swiss husband found that scene hilarious. He thinks most males—and a fair number of females—in my family are named Nick. He’s almost right. We have a lot of Georges, too. All children are supposed to receive their father’s first name as their own middle name. Wives normally change their middle names to that of their husbands. Yes, these are definite markers to the patriarchal nature of Greek culture. And, yes, that means that even female children and married women have male middle names. Sometimes, of course, parents (and wives) choose to buck both these sets of rules. And, of course, if parents don’t give birth to two boys and two girls and/or bear more than four children, they have to come up with additional names no matter how they feel about the traditions. Here are a few other tips to avoid being confused by the names in this book: Greek masculine names, first or sur, and titles frequently end in s; [ 354 ] APPENDIX A however, this letter is dropped when the person is addressed directly (the vocative case) or when the person is talked about (anything other than the nominative case). Greek Americans do not always follow this rule consistently and often drop the s no matter what grammatical role the name or title is playing. Thus “the grandfather,” ο παππούς (phonetically : o pappoós), usually comes out as “Pappoú,” no terminal s and accented on the second syllable, or even the more Americanized “Páppou,” no terminal s and accented on the first syllable. The word for “uncle,” ο θείος (phonetically: o theéos), actually follows a rule where the direct address form turns into θείε (phonetically: theé—e, long ee accented, followed by short e). But again, Greek Americans usually say theé—o (long ee accented, followed by long o), no matter what the exact grammatical role of the word in the sentence they are uttering. You’ll see “uncle” in this book as “Theio” and “grandfather” as “Pappou.” Other Greek words you will see often in this book are the words for “grandmother,” γιαγιά (phonetically: yiayia, two glides ia; as in the idiomatic “ya,” for example, in the phrase “meet ya there at six”), like the word for “grandfather ,” accented on the second syllable in Greek but often accented on the first by Greek Americans: “Yíyia”; and θεία (phonetically: theé-a), meaning “aunt.” You will see these words in this book spelled respectively “Yiayia” and “Theia.” One final explanation about names that appear here: the last name of Greek women is put into the genitive form—yes, another sign of patriarchal culture—and thus while the American form of our name is “Kacandes,” in Greece I, for example, would be referred to as Κακαντέ (phonetically: Kakandé, last syllable short e, accented). Most Greek Americans don’t make this distinction at all, and I do not make this distinction in the book while referring to any individual who lived her life mostly in the United States, but I do when referring to names of people more closely attached to Greece. Thus I refer to my paternal grandmother as Chrysoúla George Kacandes, née Tsínga: s on the “Kacandes,” but not on the name “Tsínga.” I apologize if this inconsistency seems confusing , but I feel compelled to express cultural traditions through it. APPENDIX A [ 355 ] My paternal grandfather was born in a village with the name Kolopetin ítsa or Kalopetinítsa or even Kolapetinítsa. I explain in chapter 1 why this name itself—regardless of its spelling—is problematic. I note here that multiple spellings can be seen in official and unof...