Boy names that mean sun
Sanskrit has at least six words for the sun and India uses most of them as names, which is why this list leans east. But the sun is named on every continent, and Tupi, Nahuatl, Hebrew and Egyptian all supply boys' names that mean it outright.
- SuryaSOOR-yahSanskrit
The sun, and the god who drives it. Cognate with Latin sol and Greek hēlios.
- RaviRAH-veeSanskrit
The sun as an object you can point at — the workaday word. Sunday is ravivar.
- Adityaah-DIT-yahSanskrit
Son of Aditi, the unbound one, and so the sun.
- MihirMIH-heerSanskrit
The sun — a loan from Middle Persian Mihr, going back to Avestan Miθra.
- TapanTAH-ponBengali
The sun, literally the burning one, from the root tap, to burn or glow.
- Arunah-ROONSanskrit
The red of the sky at dawn, personified as Aruṇa, the sun's charioteer.
- AsahiAH-sah-heeJapanese
The morning sun: asa 朝 (morning) + hi 日 (sun), or the single character 旭.
- HinataHEE-nah-tahJapanese
A sunny spot — hi 日 (sun) + 向 (facing). The sunlit patch of ground, not the shade.
- YangYAHNGChinese
阳 yáng, the sun-facing slope of a hill: sunlight, warmth, the bright pole of yin and yang.
- Guaracigwa-ra-SEETupi
The sun. Old Tupi kũarasy, carried into Brazilian Portuguese through Nheengatu.
- Tonatiuhtoh-nah-TYOONahuatl
The sun itself and the deity of the present age; glossed “he who goes forth shining”.
- SamsonSAM-sunHebrew
Built on shemesh, sun, with a diminutive: “of the sun”, or “little sun”.
- Mehranmeh-RAHNPersian
Of mehr — a word that holds the sun, the god Mithra and plain kindness at once.
- Mherm-HEHRArmenian
The Armenian Mithra, from Middle Persian Mihr, where the same word also means the sun.
- Khorenkho-RENArmenian
Not established. One derivation connects it to an Iranian word for sun, xwar.
- CyrusSY-russPersian
The “sun” gloss comes from Greek writers and is almost certainly folk etymology — but it is two and a half thousand years old.
- Kouroshkoo-ROSHPersian
The living Persian form of Cyrus, carrying the same disputed sun reading.
- KhafreKAHF-rayEgyptian
He appears like Ra: khai (to rise in glory) + Ra, the sun god.
- RamsesRAM-seezEgyptian
Ra has fashioned him — the sun god plus mes, to bear or give birth to.
- Akhenatenahk-uh-NAH-tenEgyptian
Effective, or radiant, for the Aten — the visible disc of the sun.
The sun as a word, a god, and a king's advertisement
The plain nouns. Ravi, Surya, Mihir and Tapan in the Indian languages, Guaraci in Tupi and Tonatiuh in Nahuatl are simply the word for the sun handed to a child. The Japanese pair works slightly differently: Asahi is the morning sun specifically, and Hinata is the sunlit patch of ground rather than the star — the opposite of hikage, the shade.
The sun as a divinity. Egyptian royal names are advertisements: Khafre rises like Ra, Ramses was fashioned by him, and Akhenaten renamed himself for the sun disc after abolishing everyone else's gods. The Iranian branch runs through mehr, the word behind Mehran and Armenian Mher, which is a god, a star and an affection in one syllable. Samson stands alone in Hebrew, built on shemesh.
Two entries need a caveat and get one. Cyrus and its Persian form Kourosh are glossed “sun” in almost every baby-name book, on the authority of Greek writers who were guessing; modern scholarship prefers an Elamite source or an Old Iranian root about humbling an enemy. Khoren has the same problem in Armenian. They are on the list because the sun reading is genuinely traditional, not because it is proven. For sunlight without the argument, see light.