# Oglu



## Volcano

*I sometimes see this word on some greek surnames.It means son of someone in Turkish, and it is written as oğlu.What about in Greek?*


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## Traduita

Hi
In Greek nothing, it is Turkish. So, it has the same meaning.
Generally a surname in -oglu means the families origins are from an area from the former Ottoman empire where there was close contact between ethnicities/languages.
That is the general concept at least, I don't know much about surname history to explain it better...


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## vatrahos

Yes, the only difference is that in Greek the "ğ" is pronounced as a normal Greek "g".


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## Volcano

*And what about dou?*


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## Traduita

Dou?
 Do you mean a surname in genitive like Vasiliadou/ Georgiadou etc? 
Surnames in -adis/-idis also mean "son of..." They form the genitive in -dou. 
Well, there are various forms of patronymics used as surnames.


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## vatrahos

Although I don't know much about last names, let me offer up what little I do know (I welcome any additions or corrections):

*IDIS* = this is the Ancient Greek patronym (IASONIDIS = son of Jason). Usually, modern day Greeks with this are descended from the Black Sea ("Pontos").

*OGLOU* = From Istanbul / Anatolia (or more generally, what is now modern-day Turkey)

*AKIS* = From Crete

*POULOS* = From mainland Greece (although this is, I think, from Latin "pullus" which means a young animal, an offspring ... i.e., a "child" -- GIORGOPOULOS = son of George)

And then you have lots of last names that show profession, like

*TZIS* (from Turkish "ci / çi", cf. "şarkıcı")


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## vatrahos

An interesting point:

For women, the last name is always in the genitive case. This is because of the outdated (perhaps I should even say "sexist" ...) idea that women "belong" to their husbands. And if they're not married? Well, then they "belong" to their father:

Man's name: "Georgos Arvanitakis"

*he has a son, whose name is "Athanasios Arvanitakis"

*he has a daughter, whose name is "Eleni Arvanitaki" (i.e., "the Eleni who belongs to Arvanitakis")


She later marries a man named "Nikos Papadopoulos" and her name becomes "Eleni Papadopoulou" (i.e., "the Eleni who belongs to Papadopoulos")


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## vatrahos

Sometimes the last name takes the genitive case with men too, like the poet Άρης Αλεξάνδρου. This literally means "Aris, the one who belongs to Alexander," i.e., "Alex's son, Aris." This is because a hundred years ago or so, before last names, people in villages knew the kids as belonging to their parents, and when it finally came time for people to adopt "official" last names, they just kept the "of (father's name)."


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## Volcano

_*Elena Ellenidou

*_*What's dou here?
*


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## vatrahos

Volcano said:


> _*Elena Ellenidou
> 
> *_*What's dou here?
> *



Not "dou" but "idou" (Ellen + idou).

As Traduita has said above, this is the genitive form of *IDIS*, for which, see this description:



vatrahos said:


> *IDIS* = this is the Ancient Greek patronym (IASONIDIS = son of Jason). Usually, modern day Greeks with this are descended from the Black Sea ("Pontos").




The genitive of IASONIDIS, for example, would be IASONIDOU.

It is in the genitive because we are talking about a woman (see above).


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## Volcano

*Ok.Thank you I got it, and it changes as to the surname -idou, -adou ?*


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## vatrahos

I'm not sure I understand the question, but yes, *idis* and *adis* both form the Ancient Greek genitive: *idou* and *adou*


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