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Re: meaning of and origin
The -ides ending is certainly Greek, as I'm sure you know.
That's the factual bit, now for a heap of speculation -
Tepe means "hill" in Turkish, tepeli might mean "hill dweller". The -li suffix gives that sense (e.g.,dag, "mountain", dagli, "mountain man"). There are problems with this suggestion. For instance, I can't recall seeing the -ides ending tacked on to anything other than Greek male forenames. Anatolian Greeks do sometimes have surnames with Turkish components, but usually we see the Turkish -oglu ending on those names.
I would expect to see a basically Greek name with a Turkish ending, rather than the other way round.
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Afterthought.
If the patronymic ending was added to Tepeli wouldn't that result in the name Tepeliades, not Tepelides? I'm not sure.
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Hello Tepelides - interesting! My Grandmother is Athena Tepelides, born circa 1910 in Saranda Ecclesies, came to US age 9. She is still living. Would you have a link with her? Email harveygenealogy at yahoo.com! Ann
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