There are some weeks now that I'm learning Greek, which by the way proves to be a pain the b..ihind :p Anyway.
I'm learning a lot of new things not only about the language but also about the society. And yesterday we got to talk about names. Nothing interesting there.
When we got to surnames (family names), that was a totally different story. You know how you are used to having the same family name with your mother, father, brother etc. ? Well forget that in Greece.
Family names are all masculine - so only men have them. For women, the surname shows to whom they "belong". The genitive form of the male surname is used as a surname for women.
In other terms if your dad's name is Panos your name - if you are a girl - will be Panou which means "of" or "that belongs to" Panos.
Nowadays, women take their father's name (so they "belong" to their father) in the old times though they "belonged" to their husbands. Can you imagine the evolution?
