Mihran
A masculine name of Persian origin signifying "large, great, or mighty".
Name Census estimates that about 145 living Americans carry the first name Mihran. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mihran today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mihran births was 2012 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mihran. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mihran with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
145
~ 1 in 2,363,823 Americans
Peak year
2012
13 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,547
Tracked since 1926
Census
Mihran in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 339 people with the first name Mihran, which placed it at #27,134 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#27,134
National first-name rank
People counted
339
339 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mihran
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mihran is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mihran described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mihran at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.7% · 260
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.8% · 57
- Two or more races3.5% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 5
- Black or African American1.2% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Mihran: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mihran from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 78 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mihran remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mihran by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mihran during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mihrans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mihran
The name Mihran is of Armenian origin, derived from the ancient Persian name Mihrān. It has its roots in the Zoroastrian religion and the Iranian culture that flourished in the region during the ancient and medieval periods.
Mihran comes from the Persian word "Mihr," which means "sun" or "light." It is a compound name, with the second part "an" being a common suffix in Persian names. The name is believed to have been inspired by Mithra, the ancient Indo-Iranian deity of light, truth, and friendship.
The earliest recorded use of the name Mihran dates back to the Sasanian Empire (224-651 AD), which ruled over ancient Persia. Several influential figures from this era bore the name, including Mihran, the famous Sasanian general who led the Persian army against the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century AD.
One notable historical reference to the name Mihran can be found in the Armenian epic poem "Daredevils of Sassoun," which tells the story of a group of legendary heroes from the region of Sassoun in Armenia. The poem mentions Mihran as a brave warrior and a member of the Daredevils.
Over the centuries, the name Mihran has been associated with various influential individuals. One of the earliest recorded examples is Mihran Gushnasp, a Persian nobleman and military commander who lived in the 6th century AD. Another notable figure is Mihran Artsruni, an Armenian prince and military leader from the 9th century AD.
In more recent history, Mihran Damadian, an Armenian-American inventor born in 1936, is credited with the invention of the first whole-body Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner. Another famous bearer of the name is Mihran Kalaydjian, an Armenian writer and poet who lived from 1880 to 1962.
The name Mihran continues to be popular among Armenians and those of Persian descent, carrying with it a rich cultural heritage and a connection to ancient traditions.
People
Mihran + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mihran as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mihran: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mihran?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 145 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mihran going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,363,823 US residents.
Is Mihran a common name?
We classify Mihran as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 152 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mihran most popular?
The single biggest year for Mihran was 2012, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mihran is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mihran in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 339 people with the name Mihran, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,134 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mihran in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mihran?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mihran appears almost entirely male. Of the 329 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mihran?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mihran is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mihran most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mihran in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.7% (260 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mihran in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mihran a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mihran in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mihran still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mihran in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mihran can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Mihran?
You can see how many Americans are named Mihran on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.