Lol - as an aside, when I first started finding out about freediving and reading about chatzistathis (or haggi statti as I found it referred to) I was really buffled about this name as it didn't sound Greek but more Italian. I suspected it might have been chatzistathis of course (as I do speak Greek) but was unsure - I am curious on whether on those first records it was 'italianised'
For those interested, a bit more info on what the prefix 'chatzi-' means:
Chatzi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nowadays it's just a name...
The man's name is a bit of an etymological mess. In the public annals in Athens, he was listed under the name Stathis Chatzi, first personal name, then family name. However, in the region of his home island Symi, the naming tradition places family name first, and personal name second, all in one word. Hence Chatzistathis.
Your link is interesting, 'cause I've always wondered why the heck the Italian form was Haggi Statti. If Chatzi is more of a title borrowed from the Arabic "Hajji", and the Italian form of that is "Haggi", then suddenly his Italian name makes perfect sense. (So thanks, is what I'm saying.)
And the reason why his name was Italianized was because the ship that lost the anchor was from the Italian navy, at a time when Italy occupied the islands in the region (don't ask me why). His dives were monitored and described by the ship's crew (in Italian), and the report is somewhere in the archive of the Italian navy in Rome, where it was dug up in something like 2001. Untill then, it was still considered a bit of an urban legend among divers (basically full of sh...), but as far as I know the report has confirmed the whole thing, including the 88 meters retrieval depth.
Anyway, I just think it's a damn cool story, so I'm totally for it as a mutual focus point for freedivers.