Spelling of Crete place names

You say Chania, I say Hania, you say Rethimnon, I say Rethymno...

No matter how long you spend in Crete, Creta, Kreta or Kriti you may still get confused by the spellings!

If you travel around by bus or hire a car from a car rental company on the Greek island of Crete you may be a little confused by some of the different spellings of the village, town and place names you may come across on maps or road signs.

For example, for the capital of Crete, Heraklion, you may see it as Heraklio, Irakleion, Iraklion or Iraklio.

Chania, the former capital, can be spelt as Hania or sometimes Xania.

Quite regularly you’ll find the letter ‘G’ as an alternative to the letter ‘Y’ as in Agios Nikolaos or Ayios Nikolaos. Sometimes added to this is the letter 'H' making it Aghios Nikolaos! And very commonly words with one ‘S’ can be seen with two, as in Lasithi or Lassithi.

Confused?

Well this variation in spelling is because the translation from the Greek language to the English language is not an exact science. Many letters in the Greek alphabet do not translate exactly to a letter in the English alphabet. So mapmakers, road sign writers, and guidebook authors translate the Greek alphabet place names to what they believe is a phonetic counterpart in the English language.

So throughout our website you’ll find alternative spellings to many of the towns and villages of Crete. So you may see Rethymnon spelt as Rethimno for example.

Variations of spellings is just one of the eccentricities of living in Crete that you never seem to get used to!

Here is a chart that might help you.

Spelling 1	Spelling 2	Spelling 3	Spelling 4
Aghio Apostoli	Aghios Apostoli	Agios Apostoli	Agios Apostolli
Aghios Nikolaos	Agios Nikolaos	Aghio Nikolaos	Agios Nickolas
Agia Galini	Aghia Galini	Agia Galilni	Aghia Gallini
Agia Marina	Aghia Marina
Agia Pelagia	Aghia Pelagia	Agia Pellagia	Aghia Pellagia
Almirida	Almeirida	Almyrida
Amoudara	Ammoudara
Anogio	Anoyio	Anoghio
Bali	Balli
Chania	Hania	Xania
Elounda	Elounta
Douliana	Ntouliana	Doulliana
Frangokastello	Fragokastello	Frangokastelo	Fragokastelo
Gerani	Girani
Georgioupolis	Georgiouppolis	Georgioupollis
Hani Kokkini	Hani Kokini	Chani Kokkini	Chani Kokini
Heraklion	Heraklio	Iraklion	Iraklio
Ierapetra	Irapetra	Iearapetra
Istron	Istro
Kalo Horio	Kalo Chorio
Kalyves	Kalives Near
Kissamos Kastelli	Kisamos Kastelli	Kisamos Kasteli	Kisamos Kastelli
Lassithi	Lasithi
Makrigialos	Makriyialos	Makri Gialos	Makrigalos
Matala	Mattala	Matalla
Malia	Mallia
Milatos	Millatos	Milato
Myrtos	Mirtos	Myrto
Paleohora	Paleochora
Paleokastro	Paliokastro
Plakias	Plakia
Platanias	Plattanias
Platanos	Platano
Rethymnon	Rethymno	Rethimno	Rethimnon
Sissi	Sisi
Sitia	Sitea
Spili	Spilli
Stalis	Stallis	Stalida
Therissos	Therisos	Thyrissos
Zakros	Zakro
Zaros	Zaross