The sun shows up every single morning without fail.
No matter what happened yesterday. No matter how dark the night was. The sun rises anyway and it lights everything up and the whole world gets another chance.
If that kind of energy is what you want your baby’s name to carry, you are in exactly the right place. Sun names come from every culture on earth because every culture has looked up at the same sky and felt the same warmth. Greek, Sanskrit, Japanese, Welsh, Arabic, Hawaiian, Norse, Aztec, Incan, Egyptian. Every people who has ever lived has had a name for the sun. And the names they created are some of the most beautiful in existence.
Here are 143 baby names that mean sun for boys, girls, and any baby who was born to shine.
Girl Names That Mean Sun
Sun names for girls tend to be warm and luminous. They carry the feeling of early morning light through a window. Some come from ancient goddesses. Some are simple words for the sun in other languages. All of them have that same golden energy.
- Aurora
- Soleil — Sun in French. Pronounced so-LAY.
- Solana
- Sol
- Sunny
- Sunshine
- Eliana
- Marisol
- Aelia
- Theia — The Greek goddess who was mother of Helios, Selene, and Eos. Thea is the modern form.
- Thea
- Helen
- Helene
- Helia
- Helie
- Heulwen — Sunshine in Welsh. Pronounced HAYL-wen in north Wales, HIEL-wen in the south.
- Tesni — Warmth of the sun in Welsh. Pronounced TESS-nee.
- Eilidh — The Gaelic form of Helen. Pronounced AY-lee.
- Áine — The Irish goddess of summer and the sun. Pronounced AWN-ya.
- Alba
- Eos — The Greek goddess of the dawn.
- Oriana
- Sunniva — Gift of the sun in Old Norse.
- Alfsol — Elf sun in Old Norse. Completely rare outside Scandinavia.
- Idalia
- Apolline
- Savita
- Aditya
- Kalinda
- Yoko — Sun child in Japanese.
- Haru
- Akino
- Nizhoni — Beautiful in Navajo, associated with the beauty of sunrise.
- Agali — Sunshine in Cherokee.
- Summer
More Girl Names That Mean Sun And Light
The sun names in this section lean toward light, radiance, and dawn. Every one of them belongs to the same golden family.
- Lux
- Luz
- Lucia
- Luciana
- Clara
- Eleanor
- Dawn
- Phoebe
- Zohra
- Zohar — Brightness and splendor in Hebrew. Rare and luminous.
- Zara
- Zia
- Nadia
- Roxana
- Iliana
Boy Names That Mean Sun
Sun names for boys carry warmth and strength at the same time. Some come from sun gods who were revered across civilizations. Some are just the word for sun in languages rarely heard in the US. All of them carry the energy of something that shows up reliably, powerfully, and brilliantly every single day.
- Apollo
- Helios — The personification of the sun in Greek mythology. His sister was Selene, goddess of the moon.
- Sol
- Cyrus
- Samson
- Ravi — The Hindu sun god.
- Aditya
- Surya — The Hindu sun god. A name of enormous power across South Asia.
- Inti — The Incan sun god. Quechua origin.
- Ra — The ancient Egyptian sun god. Two letters and one of the oldest deity names in human history.
- Amun — Fused with Ra to become Amun-Ra, king of all Egyptian gods.
- Horus
- Aelius
- Elio
- Helio
- Elian
- Langa — Sun in Xhosa and Zulu. A South African name rarely heard elsewhere.
- Haruki
- Utu — The Sumerian sun god of justice. Ancient and completely rare.
- Tyr — The Norse god whose name means to shine. Tuesday comes from his name.
- Agim — Dawn in Albanian. The time when the sun first arrives in the morning.
- Anatoly
- Altan — Red dawn in Turkish.
- Mehr — Sun and friendship in Persian.
- Antiman — Condor of the sun in Mapuche, the language of indigenous people of Chile and Argentina.
- Lugus — The Celtic god of light.
- Taner
- Zeus
- Aten
- Ciro
More Sun Names For Boys
- Sampson
- Lambert
- Aarush — First ray of sun in Sanskrit.
- Anshul — Sunbeam in Hindi.
- Baskara — Sun in Indonesian.
- Hiroshi
- Ishaan — The morning sun in Sanskrit.
- Kiran
- Roshan
- Blaze
- Flare
- Heliodoro — Gift of the sun in Greek.
- Aten
- Phaethon — The son of Helios who drove the sun chariot in Greek mythology.
- Icarus
Gender Neutral Sun Names
The sun shines on everyone equally. These names belong to any baby.
- Sol
- Sunny
- Sunshine
- Dawn
- Ray
- Solaris
- Sunday
- Lux
- Surya
- Zia
- Blaze
- Tonalli — Day and sunshine in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs.
- Xia — Glow of the sunrise in Chinese. Pronounced SHYAH.
- Yang
- Agali
Rare And Unusual Sun Names From Around The World
These are the sun names most parents have never encountered. Every one of them carries genuine solar meaning and almost none of them are being used as given names right now outside their home cultures.
- Heulwen
- Tesni
- Alfsol
- Sunniva
- Utu
- Inti
- Antiman
- Langa
- Agim
- Áine
- Lugus
- Mehr
- Tonalli
- Idalia
- Kalinda
Sun Names Inspired By Scientists And Explorers Of The Sky
Some names became solar not because they mean sun but because the people who bore them spent their lives chasing it.
- Galileo
- Aldrin
- Copernicus
- Herschel
- Newton
- Kepler
- Cassini
- Edison
Short And Bright Sun Names
One or two syllables. The sun’s energy in the fewest possible letters.
- Sol
- Ray
- Lux
- Zia
- Eos
- Ra
- Inti
- Dawn
- Haru
- Elio
Wrapping Up
So there you have it. 143 glorious baby names that mean sun for boys and girls.
From the ancient Egyptian Ra to the modern English Sunny. From the Welsh Heulwen to the Incan Inti. From the Greek Apollo to the simple, luminous Sol. Every single name on this list carries the same energy.
Warmth. Reliability. Light after darkness. A presence that shows up every single morning without fail.
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