Expert: Maria - 9/2/2009

Question
My boyfriend comes from a greek family that has fairly died out, so he'a been having trouble finding backround info. The surname is Chiricos, which he knows means 'of the Lord' but he doesn't know what his family motto or crest is. Any place he should try looking?

Answer
Hello,

first of all in Ancient Greek which is my field of expertise (view my profile) there were no surnames, but only given names like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alcibiades, Miltiades, Pericles, Aristides, Solo, Draco, Lycurgus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, etc.

Surnames weren't used in fact until the 10th or 11th centuries AD, i.e. in Modern Greek which is different from the Ancient Greek either in spelling or in pronunciation.

So, as for the surname “Chiricos” which could be derived from the ancient Greek adjective “kiriakos” (κυριακός, in Greek alphabet) just meaning “of the lord” (where “lord “ is used in the sense of “owner”, “master”), I’m sorry, but  I don’t  know any family motto or crest.

The only one suggestion I can give you is  the following site where you can read that in Italy there is also the surname Chirico as well as De Chirico (see the Italian painter Giorgio DE CHIRICO died in 1978 ):
http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.c/qx/chirico-coat-arms.htm

Anyway you could ask an expert in Modern Greek at: http://www.allexperts.com/el/Greek/


Best regards,
Maria