Greek Baby Names, With Meanings and 2025 Data

Greek names already common in Britain

Greek is the single largest foreign source of English first names, and most people using these names do not think of them as Greek at all. The counts below come from the Office for National Statistics baby names datasets for England and Wales, covering births registered in 2025 and published on 9 July 2026. Meanings follow published etymological references; where the origin is genuinely uncertain, we say so rather than picking the prettiest guess.

Greek names still uncommon in Britain

These are the names that read as distinctly Greek rather than simply as English names of Greek origin. All the figures are for 2025.

What the data shows about Greek names in Britain

The mythological names are the ones moving

Comparing the ONS 2024 and 2025 files gives two dated points from the same source, which is the only honest basis for saying a name is rising. Selene went from 26 babies in 2024 to 37 in 2025, Calliope from 40 to 57, Daphne from 338 to 390, Ariadne from 33 to 42 and Athena from 480 to 519. Christos rose from 12 to 20. Against that, Xanthe fell from 51 to 35 and Achilles from 13 to 5, so this is a broad taste for myth rather than an across-the-board rise.

The church names have been quietly slipping

Names carried into English by early Christianity rather than by mythology are mostly flat or falling. Sophie went from 886 to 724, Chloe from 646 to 521, Nicholas from 236 to 234 and Philip from 87 to 71. Sophia, the older Greek spelling, held almost exactly level at 1,610 and 1,547 while the French-derived Sophie fell hardest. That pattern repeats across the whole dataset: parents are moving toward the source spelling of a name and away from its later national forms.

Greek names carry more of the boys' top 20 than any other source

Theodore was ninth in England and Wales in 2025 with 2,638 boys, Alexander fortieth with 1,271 and Sebastian forty-seventh with 1,077. Add Nicholas, Jason, Damian, Christopher and Philip and the Greek contribution to ordinary British boys' names is larger than the Norse, Celtic and Roman contributions put together. On the girls' side the same is true of Sophia, Phoebe, Penelope, Iris and Zoe.

Nicknames come with the territory

Theodore produces Theo, and the ONS files show how completely: Theo went to 2,398 boys in 2025 in its own right, twelfth overall, on top of Theodore's 2,638. Alexander gives Alex, which went to 243 boys separately, and Sebastian gives Seb. If you choose a long Greek name you are in practice choosing two names, and it is worth being content with both.

Choosing a Greek name

Decide which Greek you mean

Theodore and Nicholas are Greek in origin but entirely English in use, and nobody will read them as a statement. Calliope, Xanthe and Ariadne are Greek in use as well as origin, and will be spelled wrong by strangers for the child's whole life. Both are reasonable choices; they are just different choices, and the counts above tell you which one you are making.

Be careful with "the name means"

Athena, Apollo, Orion, Penelope, Helena and Cassandra all have contested or unknown etymologies. Ancient authors themselves invented explanations for some of them, and those inventions are still being recycled as fact by baby-name sites. If a meaning matters to you, choose from the names above where the gloss is a straightforward vocabulary word: Sophia, Zoe, Iris, Daphne, Chloe, Melissa, Xanthe, Theodore and Theodora are all safe on that count.

Watch the stress and the vowel

Several of these names are stressed differently in Greek and in English. Penelope, Calliope and Ariadne each have four syllables in English use and are routinely shortened; Calliope in particular attracts Callie. If you would dislike the short form, that is worth testing out loud before you commit, because it will arrive whether you invite it or not.