Mehrdad (Persian: 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".
"[citation needed] 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.