Names with more than one name day: which date to choose

Most Greek names have one well-established name day. Quite a few, however, have two or even more, and then the question “when is your name day?” has more than one answer. Here is why this happens, and how families usually decide.

Why a name can have several dates

There are five main reasons:

• The same saint is honoured more than once. The Church often commemorates not only a saint's death but also the translation (transfer) of the saint's relics, or a miracle. So Thanasis (Athanasios) and Athanasia celebrate on 18 January, the feast of Saints Athanasius and Cyril, and on 2 May, the translation of the relics of Athanasius the Great. In the same way Gerasimos celebrates on 16 August and 20 October, and Efimia (Euphemia) on 16 September and 11 July. Anna has even more: 25 July, the Dormition of Saint Anne, but also 9 September, together with Joachim, and 9 December, the Conception by Saint Anne.
• Several saints share the name. Iakovos (James) may celebrate on 30 April, the feast of the Apostle James, son of Zebedee, or on 23 October, the feast of James the Brother of the Lord. Kosmas and Damianos celebrate on 1 July and on 1 November, because the Church honours two different pairs of healer saints with these names.
• A great feast and a saint. Fotis celebrates at Epiphany on 6 January but also on the feast of Saint Photios, 6 February. Anastasia celebrates at Easter and on 22 December, Thomas on 6 October and on Thomas Sunday, and Manolis and Emmanouela on both 25 and 26 December.
• Popular custom. Maria mainly celebrates on 15 August, but by custom many unmarried Marias celebrate at the Entry of the Virgin into the Temple, on 21 November, and married ones in mid-August.
• A local saint. Dionysis usually celebrates on 3 October, the feast of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, but on Zakynthos many celebrate on 17 December, the day of the island's patron saint.

How people choose

There is no official rule about which date “counts”. In practice, these are the common approaches:

1. The saint the name came from. If a child was named after a particular saint, for instance because of a family vow or because the saint is the local patron, the family usually keeps that saint's day.
2. Family habit. Many people keep the date on which the grandparent they were named after used to celebrate.
3. The best-known date. When neither applies, most people follow the date the name is most widely associated with. On each name page that date is shown as the “Main name day”, and any others appear under “Also celebrated”.
4. Both. Some people accept good wishes on both days, especially when both are equally established, as with Thanasis and Manolis.

When in doubt, ask

With friends and colleagues, the easiest thing is simply to ask when they celebrate. If you want to be safe, wishing them “Chronia polla!” (“many years”) on both dates will not bother anyone. Each name page lists all its dates, and today's name days shows who is celebrating right now. For how families choose names in the first place, see the guide to Greek naming traditions.

If you don't want to miss any of a loved one's dates, each name page lets you add all of them to your phone or computer calendar as an .ics file, covering the next ten years.

Names that depend on Easter, such as Lambros or Zoe, are a different case: they have one name day that simply falls on a different date each year. See movable name days.