Damon
/ˈdeɪmən/proper noun
A male given name of Greek origin, carried in antiquity by a Pythagorean of Syracuse famous for standing surety for a friend.
The Greek roots
Literally: “tamer”
The story of the word
The name is usually derived from δαμάζω, to tame or break in, the verb behind ἀδάμας, 'untameable', which gave English both adamant and diamond. Its fame rests on a story from fourth-century Syracuse: Damon offered his own life as security so that his condemned friend could settle his affairs, and the friend returned in time, which so unsettled the tyrant Dionysius that he released them. Note the separate Damon of Athens, a music theorist who taught Pericles and argued that changes in musical modes destabilise a city.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
In a sentence
They named the second boy Damon after a great-uncle in Kalamata.