Sanskrit2 syllablesLegendary king
Meaning: valour; literally, a stride.
Vikram
| Origin | Sanskrit — vikrama, valour, prowess |
|---|---|
| Meaning | A stride, from vi- (across, apart) with the root kram, to step; hence stepping forward, valour |
| Pronunciation | vik-RUM in India; VIK-ram is the usual English-language stress |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100; a standard name across India for several generations, and common in Nepal as Bikram |
| Variants | Bikram (Bengali and Nepali), Vikrama and Vikramaditya (Sanskrit), Vikrant from the same root |
| Nicknames | Vicky, long established in India, and Vik |
| Calendar era | The Vikram Samvat, whose year one corresponds to 57 BCE, is the official calendar of Nepal |
History & meaning
The literal sense comes first. Vikrama is built from vi-, across or apart, and the root kram, to step — so a stride, and only by extension the forward-stepping quality of a brave man. The physical meaning is preserved in one of the great images of Hindu myth: Trivikrama, he of the three strides, is Vishnu in his Vamana form, who covers earth, sky and heaven in three steps. Before Vikram was an abstraction about courage, it was a foot leaving the ground.
Its fame comes from a king. Vikramaditya, sun of valour, is the legendary ruler of Ujjain who frames two of the best-known Sanskrit story cycles — the Vetāla Pañcaviṃśati, the twenty-five tales of Vikram and the vetala, and the Siṃhāsana Dvātriṃśikā, the thirty-two tales of the throne. Whether one historical Vikramaditya lies behind the legend is disputed; the title was certainly borne by several real kings, Chandragupta II among them. The era named for him is no legend at all: the Vikram Samvat begins in 57 BCE, remains the official calendar of Nepal and is in daily use across much of India, so the year 2026 falls in Vikram Samvat 2082 to 2083.
Why parents choose it
Weight. Vikram sounds adult in a way that many currently fashionable Indian names do not, it comes with a king and a calendar behind it, and it shortens to Vicky, which has been an ordinary Indian nickname for far longer than the current fashion for clipped forms.
Middle names for Vikram
Ending on -m, it opens best onto a vowel: Vikram Aditya, Vikram Anand, Vikram Isaac, Vikram Rohan. See the middle names guide for the wider method.
Famous Vikrams
Vikram Sarabhai, the physicist who founded India's space programme, is the reason the Chandrayaan lunar landers carry the name Vikram; the third of them set down near the lunar south pole in August 2023. Vikram Seth wrote A Suitable Boy. Captain Vikram Batra was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for the Kargil conflict of 1999.
Consider instead
Veer is the same idea compressed into one syllable. Aditya is the second half of Vikramaditya standing on its own, and a sun deity in its own right. Arjun offers an epic hero instead of a legendary king.