Armenian2 syllablesNational name
Meaning: Armenian; the root of the name the rest of the world uses for the country.
Armen
| Origin | Armenian, from the same root as the country name; tradition attaches it to Armenak, a son of Hayk |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Effectively “Armenian”. The root is first recorded as Old Persian Armina in the Behistun inscription of Darius I, around 520 BC |
| Pronunciation | ar-MEN, stress on the second syllable — not AR-men |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100, and about as ordinary a men's name as exists in Armenia itself |
| Variants | Armenak, Aramaneak (the older legendary forms) |
| Nicknames | None in wide use; at two syllables there is little to clip |
| Feminine form | Armine, equally common in Armenia and built on the same root |
History & meaning
Every Armenian carries two names for their own people. The inside one is hay, from Hayk, and it is what the language actually uses. The outside one is Armenian, and Armen is that word given back as a personal name. It is old: when Darius I had his victories carved into the cliff at Behistun around 520 BC, the Old Persian text lists the province as Armina, the Elamite as Harminuya and the Babylonian as Urashtu, the name we know as Urartu. Two of the country's names stand a few lines apart in the same inscription, and the one that won outside the region is the one behind this name.
Armenian tradition, as usual, supplies a person for the word. Khorenatsi's genealogy puts Armenak, also given as Aramaneak, in the generation after Hayk, and offers Aram a few generations later as an alternative source for what the neighbours called the country. Armen itself became a standard given name in the twentieth century, especially in Soviet Armenia, and now sits among the most unremarkable choices a family can make there. Outside Armenia it is the opposite of unremarkable: it announces the origin before the surname does.
Why parents choose it
Because it says one thing, clearly, and an English speaker can read it correctly at first sight. For diaspora families it works as a statement of continuity that costs the child nothing in daily friction, which is a rarer combination than it sounds among Armenian names.
Middle names for Armen
The stressed ending pairs best with something that opens softly: Armen Grigor, Armen Thomas, Armen Vahe, Armen Julian. See the middle names guide for the full method.
Famous Armens
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan (1935–2020) was among the most prolific actors in Soviet cinema, with credits well into the hundreds. Armen Sarkissian, a theoretical physicist who taught at Cambridge before entering politics, served as president of Armenia from 2018 to 2022.
Consider instead
Hayk is the endonym to Armen's exonym, and the harder-edged of the pair. Aram covers similar ground with a biblical second life. Levon keeps the Armenian signal but comes from the Cilician kings rather than the origin legend.