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Changing Names: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Greek Onomastics
Contributor(s): Parker, Robert (Editor)
ISBN: 0197266541     ISBN-13: 9780197266540
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE:   $99.75  
Product Type: Hardcover
Published: June 2019
* Not available - Not in print at this time *
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Historical & Comparative
- History | Ancient - General
- Reference | Genealogy & Heraldry
Dewey: 929.409
LCCN: 2019285331
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.3" W x 9.2" (1.65 lbs) 300 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Changing Names investigates, in relation to the ancient Greek world, the ways in which preferences in personal name-giving change: through shifts in population, cultural contact and imperialism, the popularity of new gods, celebrity status of individuals, increased openness to external
influence, and shifts in local fashion.

Several major kinds of change due to cultural contact occurred: Greek names spread in regions outside Greece that were subject to Greek cultural influence (and later conquest), while conversely the Roman conquest of the Greek world led to various degrees of adoption of the Roman naming system; late
in antiquity, Christianisation led to a profound but rather gradual transformation of the name stock. Individuals in culturally mixed societies sometimes bore two names, one for public or official use, one more domestic; but women of non-Greek origin were more likely to stick with indigenous names.
'Structural' changes (such as the emergence of the English surname) did not occur, though in late antiquity an indication of profession tended to replace the father's name as a secondary identifier; in some regions 'second' names became popular, perhaps in imitation of the longer Roman naming
formulae. The volume is arranged partly thematically, partly through regional case studies (from within and beyond old Greece). Individuals who change their names (typically slaves after manumission) are also considered, as is the possibility that a name might change its 'meaning'.