| Mehrdad | |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /fa/ |
| Gender: | Male |
| Meaning: | Given by Mehr |
| Related Names: | Mithridates, Mehrzad, Mehrshad, Mehran |
Mehrdad (fa|مهرداد) is a common Persian male given name in Iran and other Persian speaking countries. Mehrdad is a Persian name for boys that means "given by sun" or "given by love". Mehr means "sun" or "love," and Dad means "given."
It comes from the Old Persian name "Mithradatha" and the Middle Persian name "Mehrdat", which is a theophoric name that means "given by Mithra" or "given by Mehr". "Mehr" comes from Avestan Mithra, the Zoroastrian divinity and hypo-stasis of covenant.
In modern-day Iran, the name Mehrdad is also retroactively applied to several historic Persian figures that appear in western literature as Mithridates, a Hellenized or philhellenic form of Mehrdad.