Ptolemy is a name derived from Ancient Greek. Common variants include Ptolemaeus (Latin), Tolomeo (Italian) and Talmai (Hebrew).

Etymology

Ptolemy is the English form of the Ancient Greek name Πτολεμαῖος (Ptolemaios), a derivative of πτόλεμος, an Epic form of πόλεμος 'war'.[1][2] A nephew of Antigonus I Monophthalmus was called Polemaeus,[3] the normal form of the adjective. Ptolemaios is first attested in Homer's Iliad and is the name of an Achaean warrior, son of Piraeus, father of Eurymedon.[4]

The name Ptolemaios varied over the years from its roots in ancient Greece, appearing in different languages in various forms and spellings:

Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Ptolemaîos

The name Ptolemy spread from its Greek origins to enter other languages in Western Asia during the Hellenisation that followed the conquest of the known world by Alexander the Great.

The Aramaic name "Bar-Talmai", "son of Talmai" (Greek Bartolomaios and English Bartholomew) may be related.[5]

Ptolemais is formed from this name by the Greek feminine adjectival ending -i(d)s.

Claudius Ptolemaeus

Ptolemy commonly refers to Claudius Ptolemaeus (ca. 90 AD–ca. 168 AD), a writer, geographer, mathematician, astronomer and astrologer who lived in the Alexandrine Greek culture of Roman Egypt.

Ptolemaic dynasty

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Ptolemy
in hieroglyphs

Ptolemy also refers to any of 16 pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty who ruled Hellenistic Egypt for nearly 300 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC. The Greco-Egyptian pharaonic dynasty of Macedonian origin was established by Ptolemy I Soter (303–282 BC), and the male dynastic successors were all also named Ptolemy, as were several other members of the dynasty.

Early Greek rulers and generals named Ptolemy

Other people named Ptolemy or Ptolemaeus

Born before 20th century

Born in 20th century or later

People named Tolomeo or Tolomei

Places

Uses in arts and entertainment

See also

References

  1. ↑ πόλεμος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  2. ↑ The change from polemos to ptolemos is an example of a type of linguistic compounding called terpsimbrotos. The pt- in ptolemos (vs. earlier polemos) "war" is thought to arise from a re-analysis of the compound word *phere-t-polemos, metathesised to phere-ptolemos. George Dunkel, "Two old problems in Greek: πτόλεμος and τερψίμβροτος", Glotta 70:3/4:197-225 (1992) JSTOR 40266932.
  3. ↑ Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great by Waldemar Heckel
  4. ↑ Homer, Iliad, 4.228, on Perseus
  5. ↑ Bartholomew the Apostle is thus thought to have been the son of a Ptolemy.
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