Declining Greek Names and Surnames | Greek Grammar

Names are nouns, and in Greek that means they decline. Γιώργος becomes του Γιώργου when it is a possessor and τον Γιώργο when it is an object, exactly like δρόμος → του δρόμου → τον δρόμο. Most of this page is therefore about applying paradigms you already have. But three things about names are genuinely their own: the surname system, which behaves nothing like the first-name system; the fact that feminine surnames never change at all; and the accent, which stays put on names where a common noun would move it. You meet all three in week two, the first time somebody hands you a form to fill in.

Note that this page is about morphology — what shape the name takes. Whether a name gets an article at all, and when it does not, is a separate question handled on Articles with names and places.

First names: the ordinary classes

Male and female first names slot straight into the noun declensions. Here are the four you will use every day.

	masc. -ος	masc. -ης	masc. -ας	fem. -α	fem. -η
Nominative	ο Γιώργος	ο Γιάννης	ο Κώστας	η Μαρία	η Ελένη
Genitive	του Γιώργου	του Γιάννη	του Κώστα	της Μαρίας	της Ελένης
Accusative	τον Γιώργο	τον Γιάννη	τον Κώστα	τη Μαρία	την Ελένη
Vocative	Γιώργο	Γιάννη	Κώστα	Μαρία	Ελένη

The masculine pattern is: drop the -ς everywhere except the nominative, and add -υ to the -ος genitive (Γιώργος → Γιώργου). The feminine pattern is even simpler: add -ς in the genitive and change nothing else. That single -ς is the entire feminine paradigm, and it is the one learners drop.

Πήραμε το αμάξι του Γιώργου γιατί το δικό μας χάλασε.

pírame to amáksi tu Yórghu yatí to dhikó mas chálase

We took Giorgos's car because ours broke down.

Η μητέρα της Κατερίνας μαγειρεύει τα καλύτερα ντολμαδάκια.

i mitéra tis Katerínas mayirévi ta kalítera dolmadhákia

Katerina's mother makes the best stuffed vine leaves.

Θα περάσω από του Γιάννη πριν πάω στη δουλειά.

tha peráso apó tu Yáni prin páo sti dhuliá

I'll drop by Yannis's place before work.

That last one is worth pausing on: από του Γιάννη with nothing after it means "from Yannis's (house)". Greek can leave the possessed noun out entirely and let the bare genitive stand for the home, shop or office of the person — στου Νίκου, στης Ελένης. English has the same trick in at John's, and it is one of the few places where the two languages line up exactly.

There is also a small feminine class in -ώ: η Αργυρώ, η Φρόσω, η Μαριγώ. These take a genitive in -ώς and nothing else changes.

Το σπίτι της Αργυρώς είναι ακριβώς δίπλα στην εκκλησία.

to spíti tis Aryirós íne akrivós dhípla stin eklisía

Argyro's house is right next to the church.

The accent does not move on a name

Take the common noun ο άνθρωπος. Its genitive shifts the stress forward: του ανθρώπου. Now take the name ο Αλέξανδρος, which has exactly the same shape. Everyday Greek leaves the accent where it is: του Αλέξανδρου. Names resist the shift that common nouns undergo, and this is one of the clearest ways Greek marks something as a name rather than a word.

The shifted form still exists — it is the learned genitive, and it is what you meet in historical, ecclesiastical and official contexts. Both of the sentences below are correct; they are not competing options but different registers, and mixing them up is what sounds wrong.

Το τηλέφωνο του Αλέξανδρου δεν χτυπάει καν, το έχει στο αθόρυβο.

to tiléfono tu Aléksandhru dhen chtipái kan, to échi sto athórivo

Alexandros's phone doesn't even ring — he's got it on silent. (everyday: the accent stays put)

Ο τάφος του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου δεν έχει βρεθεί ποτέ.

o táfos tu Meghálu Aleksándhru dhen échi vrethí poté

Alexander the Great's tomb has never been found. (learned: the accent shifts, as it does in common nouns)

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Those learned genitives are not a museum piece — they are where a whole layer of Greek surnames comes from. Θεόδωρος → Θεοδώρου, Νικόλαος → Νικολάου, Ιωάννης → Ιωάννου, Γεώργιος → Γεωργίου. Every surname you see ending in -ου is a frozen genitive meaning "(son) of…". Keep that in mind: it is the single fact that explains the rest of this page.

Masculine surnames

Surnames decline, but by their own ending, not by the ending of the first name they sit next to. Four types cover nearly everything.

Type	Example	Genitive	Accusative	Vocative
-ος (Peloponnesian -όπουλος, and many others)	ο Παπαδόπουλος	του Παπαδόπουλου	τον Παπαδόπουλο	Παπαδόπουλε
-ης (Cretan -άκης, Pontic -ίδης, -άδης)	ο Παπαδάκης	του Παπαδάκη	τον Παπαδάκη	Παπαδάκη
-ας	ο Ζέρβας	του Ζέρβα	τον Ζέρβα	Ζέρβα
-ου (the frozen genitives)	ο Παπαγεωργίου	του Παπαγεωργίου	τον Παπαγεωργίου	Παπαγεωργίου

The fourth row is the interesting one. A surname in -ου is already a genitive, so it has nowhere left to go: it is indeclinable, and only the article in front of it moves. Ο Παπαγεωργίου, του Παπαγεωργίου, τον Παπαγεωργίου — one shape, four jobs. The same applies to -όγλου surnames of Anatolian origin (Χατζόγλου, Ασλάνογλου), where -oğlu is Turkish for "son of" and the word simply does not inflect in Greek.

Η υπογραφή του Παπαδόπουλου λείπει από τη δεύτερη σελίδα.

i ipoghrafí tu Papadhópulu lípi apó ti dhéfteri selídha

Papadopoulos's signature is missing from the second page.

Ο δικηγόρος του Παπαδάκη ζήτησε αναβολή της δίκης.

o dhikighóros tu Papadháki zítise anavolí tis dhíkis

Papadakis's lawyer asked for the trial to be adjourned.

Περιμένουμε την απάντηση του Παπαγεωργίου μέχρι την Παρασκευή.

periménume tin apándisi tu Papayeoryíu méchri tin Paraskeví

We're waiting for Papageorgiou's answer by Friday.

Note the split in the vocative: a masculine surname in -ος takes -ε (Παπαδόπουλε), like a common noun, while a masculine first name in -ος takes -ο (Γιώργο). So you call the same man Γιώργο if you are friends and κύριε Παπαδόπουλε if you are not. The full picture is on The vocative case.

Feminine surnames are frozen genitives

Here is the fact that no textbook tells you early enough. A Greek woman's surname is the genitive of the masculine surname, and it does not decline. Only the article in front of it changes.

Case	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	ο Παπαδόπουλος	η Παπαδοπούλου
Genitive	του Παπαδόπουλου	της Παπαδοπούλου
Accusative	τον Παπαδόπουλο	την Παπαδοπούλου
Vocative	Παπαδόπουλε	Παπαδοπούλου

Παπαδοπούλου is not a feminine ending that happens to look odd. It is, literally, the phrase "of Papadopoulos" — originally "the daughter of Papadopoulos" — that hardened into a name. Once you see that, the invariability stops being arbitrary: a form that is already genitive cannot be put into the accusative, any more than English John's can.

Every masculine type has its matching feminine:

Masculine	Feminine	Literally
Παπαδόπουλος	Παπαδοπούλου	of Papadopoulos
Παπαδάκης	Παπαδάκη	of Papadakis
Ιωαννίδης	Ιωαννίδου	of Ioannidis
Ζέρβας	Ζέρβα	of Zervas
Παπαγεωργίου	Παπαγεωργίου	(already a genitive — identical)

Look closely at the first row and you will spot something the tables above set up. The masculine genitive is του Παπαδόπουλου, with the accent unmoved — because names resist the shift. The feminine surname is Παπαδοπούλου, with the accent moved to -πού- — because it comes from the learned genitive, formed back when the shift was obligatory. The two genitives split into two different words, and the woman's name preserves the older one.

Η κυρία Παπαδοπούλου διδάσκει μαθηματικά εδώ και είκοσι χρόνια.

i kiría Papadhopúlu dhidháski mathimatiká edhó ke íkosi chrónia

Mrs Papadopoulou has been teaching maths here for twenty years.

Πήρα το τηλέφωνο της κυρίας Παπαδοπούλου από τη γραμματεία.

píra to tiléfono tis kirías Papadhopúlu apó ti ghramatía

I got Mrs Papadopoulou's phone number from the office.

Ψάχνω την κυρία Παπαδοπούλου, ξέρετε σε ποιο γραφείο είναι;

psáchno tin kiría Papadhopúlu, ksérete se pio ghrafío íne;

I'm looking for Mrs Papadopoulou — do you know which office she's in?

Three sentences, three cases, one unchanging Παπαδοπούλου. Everything around it moves — η κυρία / της κυρίας / την κυρία — and the surname sits there like a stone. That is the whole rule.

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A social note that matters when you are filling in a form. Since the family-law reform of 1983, Greek spouses keep their own surnames — a married woman is legally still Παπαδοπούλου after her father, not after her husband. So the -ου on a woman's surname tells you nothing about whether she is married; it is her own name. If she does use her husband's, that is a social choice, and the form is still the genitive.

The family plural

To talk about a whole household, Greek pluralises the surname. The -ος type takes the ordinary masculine plural, and the -ης type takes the -ηδες plural that also covers colloquial trade nouns (see Masculine nouns in -ης):

ο Παπαδόπουλος → οι Παπαδόπουλοι (των Παπαδόπουλων)
ο Παπαδάκης → οι Παπαδάκηδες (των Παπαδάκηδων)
ο Παπαγεωργίου → οι Παπαγεωργίου — indeclinable, as always

Οι Παπαδόπουλοι μετακόμισαν στον επάνω όροφο πέρσι.

i Papadhópuli metakómisan ston epáno órofo pérsi

The Papadopoulos family moved into the flat upstairs last year.

Foreign names

Non-Greek names are almost all indeclinable: they take an article, which does the case work, and the name itself never changes. Ο Τζον, του Τζον, τον Τζον. Η Σάρα, της Σάρα, τη Σάρα.

Ο Τζον μένει στην Αθήνα δέκα χρόνια και μιλάει τέλεια ελληνικά.

o Dzon méni stin Athína dhéka chrónia ke milái télia eliniká

John has lived in Athens for ten years and speaks perfect Greek.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. Names that already look Greek get declined normally — a Cypriot Χριστοδούλου behaves like any -ου surname, and a Slavic or Italian name ending in -ος or -ας will usually be pulled into the matching class. And a handful of famous historical names have long-established Hellenised forms that decline: ο Ναπολέοντας → του Ναπολέοντα, ο Σαίξπηρ (indeclinable) but ο Νεύτωνας → του Νεύτωνα. Everything else stays put.

Common Mistakes

1. Declining a feminine surname. It is already a genitive; there is nothing to decline.

❌ Το γραφείο της κυρίας Παπαδοπούλας είναι στο ισόγειο.

Incorrect — the feminine surname never changes: της κυρίας Παπαδοπούλου.

✅ Το γραφείο της κυρίας Παπαδοπούλου είναι στο ισόγειο.

to ghrafío tis kirías Papadhopúlu íne sto isóyio

Mrs Papadopoulou's office is on the ground floor.

2. Adding a -ς to a -η feminine surname. Παπαδάκη is the same kind of frozen form, even though it looks like an ordinary -η noun.

❌ Μίλησα με τον σύζυγο της Παπαδάκης.

Incorrect — the feminine surname is invariable: της Παπαδάκη.

✅ Μίλησα με τον σύζυγο της Παπαδάκη χθες το απόγευμα.

mílisa me ton sízigho tis Papadháki chthes to apóyevma

I spoke to Mrs Papadaki's husband yesterday afternoon.

3. Giving a surname the first-name vocative. Surnames in -ος take -ε, not -ο.

❌ Κύριε Παπαδόπουλο, περάστε στο γραφείο μου.

Incorrect — a surname in -ος takes the -ε vocative: κύριε Παπαδόπουλε.

✅ Κύριε Παπαδόπουλε, περάστε στο γραφείο μου.

kírie Papadhópule, peráste sto ghrafío mu

Mr Papadopoulos, come into my office.

4. Giving a -ης first name the -ου genitive. Only the -ος class takes -ου; -ης names just drop the -ς.

❌ Το ποδήλατο του Γιάννου έχει σκασμένο λάστιχο.

Incorrect — the genitive of Γιάννης is Γιάννη.

✅ Το ποδήλατο του Γιάννη έχει σκασμένο λάστιχο.

to podhílato tu Yáni échi skazméno lásticho

Yannis's bike has a flat tyre.

5. Forcing an -ου surname into the accusative. It has no accusative form; the article carries the case.

❌ Ρώτησα τον Παπαγεωργίο για τα δικαιολογητικά.

Incorrect — surnames in -ου are indeclinable: τον Παπαγεωργίου.

✅ Ρώτησα τον Παπαγεωργίου για τα δικαιολογητικά.

rótisa ton Papayeoryíu ya ta dhikeoloyitiká

I asked Papageorgiou about the paperwork.

Key Takeaways

First names decline like ordinary nouns: Γιώργος → του Γιώργου, Γιάννης → του Γιάννη, Κώστας → του Κώστα, Μαρία → της Μαρίας, Ελένη → της Ελένης. The feminine genitive is just -ς
.
The accent does not shift on a name the way it does on a common noun: everyday του Αλέξανδρου, learned/historical του Αλεξάνδρου.
Masculine surnames decline by their own ending (-ος, -ης, -ας), except those in -ου / -όγλου, which are already genitives and are indeclinable.
Feminine surnames never change: η / της / την Παπαδοπούλου. The name is the genitive of the masculine surname — "of Papadopoulos" — and only the article moves.
Vocative split: surname Παπαδόπουλε (-ε, like a common noun) but first name Γιώργο (-ο).
Family plurals: οι Παπαδόπουλοι, οι Παπαδάκηδες.
Foreign names are indeclinable and rely entirely on the article.

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