Circle of stars all EU leaders as the official emblem of the European Communities, and in 1993 inherited by the successor organisation, the European Union. All European institutions now use an emblem of their own. The Zodiac is an ancient "circle of stars" where some stars are symbolically combined into 12 Star signs also known as constellations. The etymology of the term Zodiac comes from the Latin zōdiacus, from the Greek ζῳδιακός [κύκλος], meaning "[circle] of animals", derived from ζῴδιον, the diminutive of ζῷον "animal". The Crown of Immortality is a separate and earlier motif (and metaphor) which also uses a circle of
Theophoric name Theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , "theophoros", literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the name of a god, both invoking and displaying the protection of that deity. For example, names embedding Apollo, such as "Apollonios" or "Apollodorus", existed in Greek antiquity. Theophoric personal names, containing the name of a god in whose care the individual is entrusted (or a generic word for "god"), were also exceedingly common in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamia. Some names of theophoric origin remain common today, such as Theodore ("theo-", "god"; "-dore", origin of word compound in Greek: "doron", "gift"; hence