onomasti
23
Apr

Georgios

Γεώργιος

George, in English

Saint George — the soldier-martyr on the white horse: dragon-slayer, and patron of soldiers, farmers, and nations from England to Georgia.

Origin

The story of Georgios

Every Georgios carries a Roman soldier. George was an officer in the army of Diocletian — a Cappadocian Greek of good birth who, when the emperor turned on the Christians in the year 303, tore up the edict, gave his wealth to the poor, and refused to burn incense to the old gods. He was tortured and beheaded on the 23rd of April, and the Church has kept that date for him ever since.

The dragon came later. In the medieval retelling, George rides to a city held hostage by a beast in its lake and runs it through with his lance to free the king's daughter — the scene the whole world now pictures. It is legend, not history, but it fixed him forever as the pattern of courage.

His name is older still. Γεωργόςgeōrgós — means “the one who works the earth,” from γῆ (earth) and ἔργον (work). It made the warrior-saint the unlikely patron of farmers — which is why his April feast falls exactly when the land turns green.

“The rider who faces the thing everyone else has fled.”

onomasti · Georgios

Seventeen centuries. One name. One day.

From Cappadocia to every Greek table on earth.

Key facts

Georgios at a glance

Name day
23 April — St George the Trophy-bearer
This year · 2026
Thursday, 23 April
Next year · 2027
Monday, 3 May  moved — why the date moved ↓
Meaning
Γεωργός — “worker of the earth,” the farmer
Patron of
Soldiers, farmers & shepherds; England, Georgia, Portugal & more
Feminine
Γεωργία · Georgia — shares the day

Why some years move: the feast is fixed to 23 April — but when that date falls on or before Pascha, the Church carries it to Bright Monday so the martyr's joy isn't eclipsed by Holy Week. onomasti computes this for every year.

Make it yours

Learn Georgios

Say it

Γεώργιος

The accent shows the stress — your voice lifts on the highlighted letter.

In English letters: Georgios · George

Write it

Γεώργιος

Copy it and paste it anywhere you can’t type Greek — a text, a card, a cake.

Tell the kids

Pass it on. Tell them whose name they carry — and that this day is theirs to keep.

Χρόνια Πολλά

Send Georgios a Χρόνια Πολλά

Χρόνια Πολλά Γεώργιος onomasti

A name day matters more than a birthday in a Greek family — and everyone sends Χρόνια Πολλά. Here is a card to send, and the correct Greek to write, whether or not you can type it yourself.

Warm — someone close

Χρόνια πολλά!The everyday wish — “many years”.
Να τα εκατοστίσεις!“May you live to a hundred” — the traditional wish, to someone close.

Formal — an elder, or with respect

Χρόνια πολλά και ευτυχισμένα!A fuller, warmer wish — “many years, and happy ones”.
Να τα εκατοστίσετε!“May you live to a hundred” — with respect, or to more than one person.

The card and the wishes are in Greek — the way you would actually send them. We never machine-translate; these are fixed, correct greetings, and the name is woven in only where Greek grammar lets us do it without guessing.

Variations

Forms & nicknames of the name

One name takes many forms — the formal, the everyday, the affectionate, and the spellings that travelled abroad. Each has its own page here, and all share the same day.

Greek

English & romanised

Know another form?

Missing a form your family uses? Add it — a person reviews every submission before anything is published.

Distribution

Where the name is found

Among the most common given names Saint is patron here
23 Apr
one shared feast, Melbourne to Tbilisi
AD 303
martyred under Diocletian — ~1,720 years ago

Georgios is documented as one of the most common male names in Greece and Cyprus; as George it stays perennially popular across the English-speaking world. Saint George is patron of England, Georgia, Portugal, Ethiopia and more.

On exact numbers: most national registries don't publish per-name counts, so we don't invent per-country figures. The map shows only patronage and where the name is documented as most common.

Iconography

Georgios in sacred art

Images from Wikimedia Commons under free licences, credited to their source. We show a depiction only where the saint on this name’s day could be identified against our own recorded feast date — never a picture found by searching for the name.