Certain Greek surname suffixes are associated with various parts of Greece, providing clues to where a family might have originated. Here are common place-based suffixes:
-akis: Crete and the Aegean Islands
-akos: Laconia
-as: Macedonia and the Epirus
-atos or –etos: Ionian islands
-eas: Messenian part of the Mani peninsula
-allis or –ellis: Dodecanese islands, mainly Rhodes
-iadia or –iades: Asia Minor
-idis or –ides: Asia Minor
-lis: Turkey
-oglou: Asia Minor
-ou: Cyprus
-opoulos: originally Peloponnesus, but now widespread throughout Greece
From the May/June 2012 issue of Family Tree Magazine