View Message

In Greece, too, namedays are of more significance than birthdays (not in my book!). Here’s a list of Greek orthodox namedays:
http://www.in2greece.com/english/factstrivia/facts/namedays.htm
And for a more comprehensive list:
http://www.sfakia-crete.com/sfakia-crete/greeknamedays.html
The latter site may be confusing, because name are expressed in a grammatical form meaning “(nameday) -of” (darn I cant remember the correct grammatical name for this).
For example,
August 7 – Asteriou, means “of Asterios,” and
June 8 – Kalliopis, means “of Kalliope”
If you’s like I could help you decipher these, particularly completing the contemporary Greek names section in BtN. It is interesting to see how many ancient Greek names made their way into the Orthodox Church; the refusal of the Orthodox Church to allow classical Greek names with now saintly namesakes has, unfortunately, caused an onomastic poverty in contemporary Greece :(
I will try to find a resource with namedays of pre-christian Greek names…