Entry № 8047 · Greek origin

Periboea Periboea — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ peh-ri-BEE-ah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Greek
Meaning
"Surrounded by cattle (Oedipus's foster mother)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Greek)

A name that means "surrounded by cattle (oedipus's foster mother)".

Periboea (Περίβοια) combines the Greek peri (around) and boia (cattle). The Corinthian queen, wife of Polybus, who raised the infant Oedipus after he was rescued from Mount Cithaeron — her loving care without revealing his true origin set the stage for the tragedy of Oedipus Rex.

Multiple Greek women bore the name; this is the most famous.

The Corinthian queen who raised Oedipus as her own son.

The name in its native script.

Περίβοια
Transliteration
Períboia
Pronunciation
/ ˌpɛr.ɪˈbiː.ə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Periboea stands.

Periboea does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Periboeas before her.

Real people
Periboea
Greek mythological figure.
In fiction
Periboea
Oedipus's foster mother.
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex

Names connected to Periboea.

The number behind Periboea.

8

The Visionary

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Periboea reduce to 8, The Visionary. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.