[Surname] Re: KIRIAKOU and LYRANTONAKIS 's meaning
in reply to a message by hj
Κυριάκι is a placename in Greece so Κυριακού could very well be derived from that. No idea about the other one.
Replies
κυριακός κυριακόν is the obvious origin of Kiriakou, from κύριος, "Lord" with a suffix equivalent to English -y (e.g. rose, rosy). It may possibly be the equivalent of the English surname "Church", but is rarely used in that sense in Greek.
Kyriakou denotes descent from a man named Kyriakos, a name meaning "belonging to the Lord", i.e., equivalent to the Latin Dominic(us). Surnames ending in -ou are often Cypriot in origin.
Surnames ending on -os (for the man) are in Greece changed to -ou for the women. So if the man's surname would be Kyriakos, then the surname of his daughter or sister would be Kyriakou.
However, among Cypriot Greeks -ou is a common surname ending. One might say equivalent to -ides or -opoulos in mainland Greece.
Some examples - Christos Demetriou, Kostas Loizou, Panayiotis Aristidou. The singer George Michael has a Greek Cypriot surname ending in -ou. I forget what it is.
Some examples - Christos Demetriou, Kostas Loizou, Panayiotis Aristidou. The singer George Michael has a Greek Cypriot surname ending in -ou. I forget what it is.
His full name is Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου). The origin of the surname can be found at tinyurl.com/hf65nr6.