Mehrdad


Mehrdād is a common Persian male given name in Iran and other Persian speaking countries. Mehr means "sun" or "love" and Dād means "given". So the literal meaning of Mehrdād is given by sun or given by love.
Mehrdad is a historical Persian name that derives from Middle Persian Mihrdāt, a theophoric name meaning 'given by Mehr'. Mehr is an alternative name for Mithra, a Zoroastrian divinity and hypostasis of covenant.
In present-day Iran, the name Mehrdad is also retroactively applied to several historic figures that appear in western literature as Mithridates, a hellenized or philhellenic form of Mehrdad.