Sanskrit2 syllablesSun name
Meaning: the sun.
Mihir
| Origin | Sanskrit — mihira, the sun, itself a loan from Iranian |
|---|---|
| Meaning | The sun; from Middle Persian Mihr, going back to Avestan Miθra, the god of covenants |
| Pronunciation | MIH-heer (two syllables, evenly weighted) |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100; well used in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bengal, uncommon elsewhere |
| Variants | Mihira (Sanskrit), Mihirbhoj; the Persian relatives Mehr, Meher and Mehrdad |
| Nicknames | Mihu, or simply the full name — two light syllables leave little to cut |
| Namesake | Varāhamihira, the sixth-century astronomer of Ujjain, carries the word in his name |
History & meaning
Sanskrit is not short of words for the sun: sūrya, ravi, bhānu, arka, āditya. Mihira is the outsider in that list, because it was not inherited but borrowed. It comes from Middle Persian Mihr, which goes back to Avestan Miθra — the Iranian god of oaths and covenants who was identified with the sun. Sanskrit already had the inherited cousin of that name in Mitra, a Vedic deity whose name also means friend or contract. Mihir and Mitra are therefore the same ancient word reaching India twice, centuries apart, by two different roads.
The loan is visible in the historical record. Varāhamihira, the astronomer and compiler of the Bṛhat Saṃhitā, worked at Ujjain in the sixth century. Mihirakula, an Alchon Hun king, ruled in northwestern India at about the same time, and the ninth-century Gurjara-Pratihara emperor Bhoja I was known as Mihira Bhoja. All three names sit on the Iranian side of a long exchange between the two branches of the Indo-Iranian family. Today none of that history is audible: Mihir is simply a plain, unloaded given name in western India and Bengal.
Why parents choose it
Soft consonants, no cluster to trip over, and a meaning that any Indian language speaker recognises. It is a sun name that is not a god's name — an epithet rather than a deity, which is a distinction Indian families weigh carefully when they choose between Mihir and something like Surya.
Middle names for Mihir
The name ends on a soft r, so a vowel opening keeps it moving: Mihir Anand, Mihir Kabir, Mihir Jai, Mihir Alexander. See the middle names guide for the general method.
Famous Mihirs
Mihir Sen was the first Indian to swim the English Channel, in 1958, and in one extraordinary year, 1966, he crossed the Palk Strait, the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus and the Strait of Gibraltar and swam the length of the Panama Canal. Mihir Bose, the author and journalist, became the BBC's first sports editor in 2006.
Consider instead
Ravi is the commonest Sanskrit word for the sun and the easiest of the set for English speakers. Surya names the sun god himself, with the devotional weight that implies. Kiran means a ray of light and is given to both boys and girls in India.