Today’s name day reaches further than family. Every Abraham in your contacts, and even the rarer Lot, shares a celebration with Greek name day custom today. It is the kind of tradition that can turn into an easy text to a classmate, co-worker or neighbour who has never heard of name days but might like the idea immediately.
Abraham comes into English through Latin and Greek from Hebrew Avraham, the form associated with the biblical patriarch; the earlier Hebrew Abram also survives in several languages. The name has travelled widely, with cousins such as Avraham, Abramo, Abrahán, Abraão and Ibrahim, which is why it often feels familiar far beyond one culture. Lot is older and rarer in everyday use, coming into English through the biblical and classical tradition from Hebrew Lot, preserved in Greek as Λωτ and in several European and Middle Eastern languages with only slight changes.
In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a person’s name day is the feast day of the saint after whom they were named at baptism.
Abraham carries a sense of age and steadiness, the kind of name that suits a papou whose word still settles the room, or a customer everyone trusts because he has been showing up with the same quiet reliability for years. Lot is much less common, which gives it a distinctive, almost literary feel; if there is a Lot in your wider circle, he is probably the one people remember after hearing his name only once. And somewhere in Montreal there is surely an Abraham at work, at school or across the street who would smile at learning that Greek custom is celebrating his name today too.
Chronia Polla! To everyone celebrating today, Greek and non-Greek alike. If you know an Abraham, or the uncommon but memorable Lot, this is a good day to send a quick happy name day message and share a small piece of Greek tradition with someone who may not even know it belongs to them.
