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Mythology Middle Names

80 middle names from Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic and Egyptian myth, each one labelled with the pantheon it actually belongs to — and each story checked before it went on the list.

The trap on this style is mixing the pantheons up. Diana is Roman and Artemis is Greek; they are counterparts, not the same name in two spellings, and a Roman middle behind a Greek first name (or the reverse) sounds fine but says something slightly confused. Freya is Norse, not Celtic. Brigid, Rhiannon and Danu are Celtic, not Norse. Isis, Hathor and Horus are Egyptian and have no relation to any of them. If the point of the name is heritage rather than sound, get the culture right, because someone in the family will eventually ask. Sound-wise the pantheons diverge too: Greek names run long and vowel-heavy and end in -e, -a or -os, Roman names are shorter and harder-edged, Norse names are stubby and consonantal, Celtic names carry spellings that do not match their pronunciation, and Egyptian names are compact and unfamiliar enough that most people will simply accept whatever you say.

The other thing worth doing before you commit is reading the myth to the end. Plenty of beautiful names belong to people the gods destroyed. Cassandra was given true prophecy and cursed so that nobody would believe her; the word "Cassandra" now means an unheeded warner. Icarus flew too near the sun and drowned. Persephone was abducted into the underworld, Echo faded to a voice, Niobe's children were killed for her boasting, Medea murdered her own, Narcissus starved at his reflection, and Atlas holds up the sky as a punishment. None of that necessarily rules a name out — Cassandra has been a well-used name for decades and Atlas is currently thriving — but a middle name is a thing your child will one day look up, and it is better that they find the story from you first. This page leaves out the outright monstrous (no Medusa, no Loki, no Hel) and flags the rest.

Top picks, annotated

Both lists are alphabetical, and here is the pantheon for every entry on them. From Greek myth: Ariadne, Artemis, Calliope, Clio, Demeter, Eos, Gaia, Hebe, Hera, Iris, Leto, Maia, Nyx, Penelope and Thalia; among the boys, Apollo, Atlas, Castor, Damon, Hector, Hermes, Jason, Linus, Nestor, Orpheus, Perseus, Theseus, Triton and Zephyr, with Evander straddling the line as the Arcadian Greek whom Roman legend settles on the future site of Rome. Cybele is the odd one out: Phrygian in origin, taken up by both the Greeks and the Romans. From Roman myth: Aurora, Bellona, Ceres, Diana, Flora, Luna and Minerva, plus Janus, Mars, Romulus and Silvanus. From Norse: Eir, Idunn, Saga and Sif, plus Bragi, Freyr, Magni, Njord and Thor. From Celtic tradition, Irish and Welsh: Aine, Arianrhod, Branwen, Brigid, Danu, Etain and Niamh (NEEV), plus Aengus, Cian, Cormac, Fionn (FINN), Lugh (LOO), Nuada, Oisin (uh-SHEEN) and Taliesin. From Egyptian: Hathor, plus Amon, Horus and Ra. Several of these double as real astronomical objects, which is why they turn up again on the celestial list.

For girls

For boys

Pairing rule: one god per name. A mythological first name plus a mythological middle turns the whole thing into a costume — Athena Persephone, Thor Odin, Luna Selene. Put the myth in the middle and something ordinary in front of it, and the name keeps its weight without asking anyone to comment on it.

Keep browsing

Adjacent styles: celestial middle names, where half the Greek roster reappears as actual stars, literary for the characters rather than the gods, strong for the warrior end of this list, and unique for names with the same distinctiveness and less baggage. The Greek entries are drawn out further under Greek origin names. Then see how to choose a middle name, or return to all 22 styles.