Greek names - vocative

Question

Hello! I'm Sharon from Singapore. I'm studying Greek (currently working my way through the "Intermediate" part of Living Language Greek) but don't trust my language "skills" to get the names right for the Greek characters I'm writing into my novel series.

Hope somebody can help! Thank you SO MUCH!

This is about the vocative.

(1) For Stylianos (a.k.a. Stelios), I think it might be Styliane/ Stelio?

Eg. as in "Styliane, what did he tell you?" /"Stelio, what did he tell you?"

(2) In the event that I name this character Efstratios/ Stratis instead, maybe the vocative could be Efstratios/ Strate?

(3) I might use the name "Kreon" for another man, I'm guessing it would still be "Kreon" when he is addressed directly in speech?

(4) The female character, Kallipso (*accented on the final syllable)... I don't know what the vocative would be! I really love this name and do hope to use it. If that doesn't work, my backup names for her are Marina or maybe Nefeli.

Thank you and happy weekend, all! I really appreciate this help. I'm a big fan of Greek songwriters (eg. Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis, Stavros Ksarhakos etc), so this BB is already a treasure.

Rgds,

Sharon

Answer 1

Hello, Sharon!

So, let’s start, these are the vocative forms of the names:
1) Styliane/ Stelio (Στυλιανέ / Στέλιο).
2) Efstratie / Strati (Ευστράτιε / Στρατή).
3) Kreon.
4) Kallipso (Καλυψώ), Marina (Μαρίνα) and Nefeli (Νεφέλη).

Wish you all the best with your novel series!  Hope to read them one day!

Comments

This is amazingly useful and kind! THANK YOU! :) I have the feeling that the names I choose for my characters -- regardless of language... -- tend to have a sort of vintage feel to them. Kleon (or Kreon), Kallipso, and Nefeli especially! :D But the characters are actually fairly young people. ((((( hug ))))