Christos is a common
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
. In Greek, it may be spelled Χρίστος (''Chrístos'') or Χρήστος (''Chrēstos''), which are pronounced identically (''cf.''
iotacism
Iotacism ( el, ιωτακισμός, ''iotakismos'') or itacism is the process of vowel shift by which a number of vowels and diphthongs converged towards the pronunciation in post-classical Greek and Modern Greek. The term "iotacism" refers t ...
).
Derivation
Χρίστος
The Greek name Χρίστος is derived from the earlier word χριστός (note the difference in accentuation), meaning "anointed" and which became the
Christian theological term for the
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
.
Χρήστος
The spelling of the Greek name Χρήστος suggests a derivation from the word χρηστός, which in earlier forms of the language principally meant "useful",
Strong's Concordance: χρηστός
/ref> and in modern Greek means "ethical, righteous, good, just, upright, virtuous".
Transposition of accent
Transposing the accent to the first syllable distinguishes Χρίστος (Christos), the common name, from Χριστός, Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. Similarly the given name Stavros (Σταύρος, ''Stávros'') has the stress on the first syllable, differentiating it from σταυρός (''stavrós''), the Christian cross.
Constantine P. Cavafy
Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης ; April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Gree ...
gave two reasons for the transposition of the accent in the name "Christos": firstly, the rule of transposition of the accent from the final syllable to the immediately preceding syllable in ancient adjectives when they become proper nouns, "and secondly, the pious practice of differentiating in appearance from the divine epithet". Cavafy gave other anthropological examples of the need felt to distinguish between the "sacred" and the "profane", and university professor Giorgos Veloudis added tο Cavafy's examples the distinction between the "profane" word Σταύρος (the name "Stavros") and the "sacred" word σταυρός ("cross").[Giorgos Veloudis, "Ηξερε ο Καβάφης ελληνικά;" in ''Το Βἠμα'', 3 March 2017 (access date: 3 March 2017)]
/ref>
Veloudis also mentioned the reverse process whereby Christians have treated as "profane" the names of pre-Christian divinities such as Hermes, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, names used today by Greek-speakers.[
]
See also
* , which includes people with first name "Christos"
References
{{Reflist
Greek masculine given names
Given names of Greek language origin