John Komnenos
Two later sources, Gennadios Scholarios in the 15th century and the 16th-century scholar Pseudo-Sphrantzes, report that he was a descendant of the "Caesar" Nikephoros Melissenos and Eudokia Komnene, a sister of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (), through their son John Komnenos. Pseudo-Sphrantzes asserts that Strategopoulos was the great-grandson of John Komnenos, and that it was he derived his surname of "Strategopoulos" from the wife of his grandfather Alexios. Scholarios on the other makes John Komnenos his great-great-grandfather, and claims that it was only Strategopoulos' alleged father, Theodosios, who was nicknamed "Strategopoulos" ("little general") by the Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes () for his military acumen.