    the name ptolemy or ptolemaeus comes from the greek ptolemaios, which seems to mean warlike or son of war. there have been many people named ptolemy or ptolemaeus, the most famous of which are the greek-egyptian astronomer claudius ptolemaeus and the macedonian founder and ruler of the ptolemaic kingdom in egypt, ptolemy i soter. the following sections summarise the history of the name, some of the people named ptolemy, and some of the other uses of this name. ==etymology and history== according to georg autenrieth the english name ptolemy comes from the ancient greek name Î ÏÎ¿Î»ÎµÎ¼Î±á¿Î¿Ï (ptolemaios),Î ÏÎ¿Î»ÎµÎ¼Î±á¿Î¿Ï. the meaning of the name ptolemy seem to be a matter of strife; in accordance with georg autenrieth, a homeric dictionary, on perseus "warlike" or "son of war". autienrieth renders the meaning of the name to be an adjective from ÏÏÏÎ»ÎµÎ¼Î¿Ï (ptÃ³lemos), explained as a homeric form of ÏÏÎ»ÎµÎ¼Î¿Ï (pÃ³lemos), "war".ÏÏÎ»ÎµÎ¼Î¿Ï, henry george liddell, robert scott, a greek-english lexicon, on perseusthe 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: ptolemos and terpsimbrotos", glotta 70 (1992). a nephew of antigonus i was called polemaeus,who's who in the age of alexander the great  by waldemar heckel 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.homer, iliad, 4.228, on perseus the name ptolemaios varied over the years from its roots in ancient greece, appearing in different languages in various forms and spellings. the original form, and some of the variants, are listed here in the languages relevant to the history of the name. {| |- | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" | greek  (ptolemaÃ®os) |- | style="padding-right: 4em;" valign="top" | latin ptolemaeusgerman ptolemÃ¤us or ptolem
Ancient_Greece Cultural_history Etymologies Hellenistic_Egyptians Ptolemaic_dynasty