why they used the adjectival form, which seems very odd in English.
But, Velisarius, what seems very odd in English may seem perfectly normal in Greek or in other languages and vice versa. I guess you agree.
As can be read both in the Greek Βικιπαίδεια and Wikipedia, the University of Athens was founded [2nd decree] and started its operation in 1837, under the name
Ὀθώνειον Πανεπιστήμιον (Othonian University): in this case the adjectival form of the King’s name (
Ὀθώνειον<Ὄθων<Otto) was used for the University’s name. Later on, it was renamed to
Ἐθνικόν (< Έθνος= Nation)
Πανεπιστήμιον (National University) in 1862, following events that forced King Otto to leave the country. In 1911, the University, for reasons relating to a strict condition of a very generous bequest, was formally separated into two independent entities, the one taking the name “
Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον” (the humanities departments) and the other retaining the name “
Ἐθνικόν Πανεπιστήμιον” (the science departments). In 1932, the two separate legal entities were merged into the "
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens." As we can see, throughout its history the university has been named with adjectives (Ὀθώνειον[1837], Ἐθνικόν [1862], Καποδιστριακόν [1911] / Ἐθνικόν [1911], Ἐθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν [1932]) before the noun Πανεπιστήμιον, a structure perfectly normal. And it wasn’t at all a preoccupation of the university authorities to make Kapodistrias’s name recognisable in English, especially at that time when the Greek State (and even the upper class society) was under a rather strong French cultural influence.
It's interesting to compare the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens with:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης)
Please note that in Greek it reads:
Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (where Αριστοτέλειο is an adjective coming from the name Αριστοτέλης) and
not Πανεπιστήμιο Αριστοτέλους, while in English it is often rendered as
Aristotelian (adj.) University of Thessaloniki.
I agree with Velisarius and write it as she suggests
This is correct, if you write in a language using C with the sound of "K". We shouldn’t forget that in Greek, as long as there is no C letter, it couldn’t be rendered with another consonant but
K(apodistrias). Besides,
K is clearly seen in Kapodistrias's own signature.