Names That Mean Sun: 50+ Radiant Picks for Your Baby

If you keep coming back to names that mean sun, I understand the pull completely — there’s something about naming a baby for the warmest, brightest thing in the sky that feels like a little wish you get to say out loud every day. Sun names turn up in nearly every language on earth, carried by gods and pharaohs and grandmothers, and they range from soft and sunrise-gentle to bold and blazing. I’ve gathered the loveliest ones here, for girls and boys both, with their honest meanings and the original word for sun tucked in beside each one, because seeing where the warmth comes from makes the choosing sweeter.

Every name links to its full page in our baby names directory — meaning, origin, popularity, and a tap-to-listen clip all in one place. You can also wander the whole names that mean sun hub any time the mood strikes.

In this guide

• Why a sun name feels so right
• Girl names that mean sun
• Boy names that mean sun
• Sun names from around the world
• Dawn, light, and radiance
• Soft, unisex, and word names
• By the feeling you’re after
• Sun names that pair well together
• A few thoughts on choosing
• Questions other parents ask

Why a sun name feels so right

There’s a reason names that mean sun never go out of style. Think about what the sun has always meant to people: warmth, hope, a new morning after a hard night, the thing every living plant turns its face toward. Long before any of us were choosing baby names, families were naming children for the sun as a blessing — may you be bright, may you be warm, may you light up a room. That tenderness is still in these names, and you can feel it whether you lean toward something whisper-soft or something that arrives with a bit of glory.

One lovely thing about names that mean sun is how many cultures gave the world their own. The Romans had sol, the Greeks hḗlios (ἥλιος), Sanskrit speakers sūrya (सूर्य), Arabic shams (شمس), Japanese hi (日). Each one carries the same light through a different language, which means you can choose a name for its sound and still know it means exactly what your heart wants it to.

Girl names that mean sun

For a daughter, names that mean sun tend to be warm and luminous without being loud — the kind of name that suits a newborn and a grown woman just as well:

• Sol — simply “sun” in Spanish and Latin (sol); one radiant syllable, understood almost everywhere.
• Soleil — the French word for sun (soleil); pretty and a little dreamy, said “so-LAY.”
• Solana — a Spanish name for “sunshine” or a sunny place, straight from Latin sol; soft and flowing.
• Solara — built on Latin solaris, “of the sun”; sunlight stretched into something melodic.
• Marisol — “sea and sun” in Spanish (mar + sol); two of nature’s warmest things in one name.
• Shams — Arabic for the sun itself (شمس); the name of the mystic who set Rumi’s poetry alight.
• Zoha — Arabic and Urdu for “morning light, brilliance of the sun”; graceful and gentle.
• Aruna — Sanskrit for the reddish glow of dawn, the charioteer of the sun god (अरुण).
• Aeliana — a Roman name from sol by way of Aelius, with that lovely “sun” lineage and a soft ending.

Boy names that mean sun

For a son, names that mean sun give you everything from the mighty to the mellow — godly names with thousands of years behind them, and easy modern ones that wear their light lightly:

• Helios — the Greek sun god himself (ἥλιος, hḗlios), who drove the sun across the sky each day; mythic and grand.
• Elio — an Italian and Spanish “sun” name with an airy three-syllable lilt; warm and a touch romantic.
• Apollo — the Greek god of the sun, music, and poetry; once unthinkable as a first name, now climbing happily.
• Cyrus — a Persian name long linked to the sun and to Cyrus the Great; royal grandeur with a warm, easy sound.
• Surya — Sanskrit for “sun” (सूर्य), and in Hindu tradition the name of the sun itself; luminous and strong.
• Ravi — Sanskrit “sun” (रवि), one of the names of the sun deity; gentle, beloved, and easy to say.
• Samson — Hebrew for “sun child” (שִׁמְשׁוֹן, from shemesh); bold, biblical, and quietly making a comeback.
• Ramses — ancient Egyptian for “born of Ra,” the sun god; the name of pharaohs, heavy with grandeur.
• Siraj — Arabic for the radiant lamp (سراج), the very word the Quran uses for the sun; hopeful and classic.
• Mihir — Sanskrit “sun” (मिहिर), itself a gift from the Persian Mithra; two empires of light in one name.

Sun names from around the world

This is the part I love most about names that mean sun — how the same warm idea travels from one language to the next, each with its own music. If you have roots you’d like to honor, or you simply fall for a particular sound, here are names that mean sun gathered by where their light comes from:

• Japan — the sun is hi (日): Haru (“spring, sunlight”), Hinata (“a sunny place; toward the sun”), Himari (“sunlight and jasmine”), Hina (“sun”), and Nikko (“sunlight,” and a lovely temple town, 日光).
• Persia — Cyrus and the gentle Ciro carry sun and royal light; Mehran and Mehtab glow nearby (from mehr, “sun, love”).
• The Arab world — Shams (شمس, “sun”), Siraj (“radiant lamp”), Anwar (“more luminous”), and Zoha (“morning light”).
• India — Surya (सूर्य), Ravi (रवि), Mihir, and Kiran (“ray of light, sunbeam,” किरण).
• The Mediterranean — Greek Helios and Elios; Italian Elio and Eliano; Spanish and Latin Sol.
• The Pacific — Maui, the Polynesian hero who, the old stories say, slowed the sun itself to make the days longer.

If you’d like to keep following a thread, the names that mean sun hub gathers all of these and more in one warm place.

Dawn, light, and radiance

Sometimes it isn’t the blazing midday sun you’re after but the soft edges of it — first light, a glow, a sunbeam. These names hold the gentler kinds of brightness:

• Aurora — Latin for “dawn,” the Roman goddess of morning (aurora); ethereal and beloved.
• Dawn — the English word for daybreak, the very first light of morning; simple and tender.
• Kiran — Sanskrit for “ray of light, sunbeam” (किरण); used warmly for girls and boys alike.
• Anwar — Arabic for “more luminous, brighter”; a name that glows.
• Roshan — Persian for “bright, light, shining”; quietly radiant.
• Tariq — Arabic for the “morning star” that pierces the dark (طارق); hopeful and storied.
• Solveig — Old Norse, often read as “the sun’s strength”; lyrical and strong, said “SOOL-vay.”
• Ellie and Helen — from Greek roots tied to light and the bright shining one; timeless and serene.

Soft, unisex, and word names

And then there are the names that just say it outright — sunny, warm, no translation needed. These wear beautifully on a child of any gender:

• Sunny (and Sunny for a boy) — pure cheerful warmth, from Old English sunne.
• Sunshine — the whole bright word, soft and unmistakable.
• Sunnie — a sweeter spelling with the same glow.
• Solai, Solei, and Soleia — gentle sun-rooted names with a lyrical lift.
• Soliana — a flowing, sun-touched name with lovely length.
• Capri — sun-soaked and breezy, with all the warmth of an island afternoon.
• Soren — soft and thoughtful, a gentle pick for the sunrise-minded.

By the feeling you’re after

If you’re following your heart toward a certain mood, here’s a quick way to find your name among the ones above:

• Bold and mythic (god of the sun): Helios, Apollo, Surya, Ramses.
• Soft and sunrise-gentle (dawn, अरुण, glow): Aurora, Dawn, Aruna, Zoha.
• Short and radiant (sol): Sol, Elio, Ravi, Cyra.
• Sweet word names (sunshine): Sunny, Sunshine, Soleil, Solana.

You can browse hundreds more in our wider names-by-meaning hub whenever you want to keep wandering.

Sun names that pair well together

If there’s already a little one at home, or there will be, it can help to picture two of these side by side. The trick isn’t matching a theme too tightly — it’s matching the feel and the length so the names sound like they belong to the same family. A few sets I find myself coming back to:

• Soft and sunrise-gentle: Aurora and Elio, or Soleil and Soren.
• Bright and bold: Helios and Cyra, or Apollo and Aruna.
• Honoring different roots: Surya and Sol, two names that mean sun from worlds apart that still sing together.

One gentle tip: steer clear of two names that begin and end on the same sound (Sol and Soleil, say) — they tend to blur together a little when you’re calling everyone in for supper. And if you’re naming for a grandparent or carrying a family thread, a sun name makes a tender keepsake; many families choose the one whose meaning best matches a hope they hold for the baby, the way parents have done for the sun for thousands of years.

A few thoughts on choosing

When you’ve found one or two names that mean sun that warm you, here are the small things that help it settle:

• Say it out loud, often. Whisper it over a sonogram photo, try it at bedtime, picture yourself calling it across a playground in a few years. The right one keeps feeling right.
• Honor the meaning honestly. A few of these names (the sweet coined ones like Solei or Soliana) are newer and lovingly invented; the ancient ones like Surya and Helios carry thousands of years of the sun in them. I’ll always tell you which is which so you can choose with open eyes.
• Listen to how it’s truly said. For names from another language, learning the real pronunciation is a small, lovely act of respect — every name page here has a tap-to-listen clip to make that easy.
• Check the popularity if it matters to you. You can see how any name is trending in the United States through the public records kept by the Social Security Administration — it’s the same data we use to chart each name in our directory. For deeper history and roots, a scholarly reference like Behind the Name sits nicely beside our own sourced entries.

Whatever you land on, take your time — naming a baby for the sun is a tender, hopeful thing, and there’s no rush at all. A good sun name feels just as right whispered to a sleeping newborn as it will sound called across a sunlit yard one day.

Questions other parents ask

Find your name

Wherever your heart lands, you can keep looking with no pressure and nothing to buy. Wander the full names that mean sun hub, or search all 11,000+ names — each with its meaning, origin, popularity, and audio — over in the More4Kids baby names directory. The right one has a way of finding you.