Theophilus

Theophilus combines Greek words for God and friend, giving it the meaning friend of God. It is the Latinized form of Theophilos. In the New Testament, Luke addresses both his Gospel and the Book of Acts to Theophilus, making the name part of the opening framework of two connected biblical books.

That dedication is more secure than attempts to reconstruct every detail of the historical recipient's life. The name itself also has a literary association through Thornton Wilder's novel Theophilus North. Theo supplies an explicitly familiar shortening while the full form preserves the friendship element that distinguishes Theophilus from Theodore. For a family comparing longer Theo names, the different Greek endings carry genuinely different meanings.