- Origin: Persian سهراب
- Meaning: “red water”
- Gender: Male
Sohrab (Persian: سهراب) is a classic Persian male name. It is most famous from the Shahnameh. In the epic, Sohrab is the heroic son of Rostam and Tahmineh. He is celebrated for his beauty and courage. He is known for his tragic duel with his father Rostam. It is one of the most famous episodes in Persian literature. His story has inspired countless Persian miniatures, operas, and poems. There are also even Western adaptations. One example is Matthew Arnold’s 19th-century poem Sohrab and Rustum.
Scholars derive it from Middle Persian, Suhrāv / Sōhrāv. It is composed of suhr / sohr (سهر) – “red, ruddy, rosy, dawn-colored.” The term āb آب means “water,” but in old compound names, it figuratively represents “essence, fluid, brightness, radiance.” The latter may also be related to آو / او (âv / ô / ow), which is an older or poetic variant meaning, “sound” or “voice.” In some historical compounds, it functions like âb to indicate “substance” or “radiance.”
The name appears not only in Iran, but is found across the Persianate world, including Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan. It also exists among Central Asian and South-Asian communities influenced by Persian literature, and Zurab ზურაბ is its Georgian form.
International variations include:
- Zurab Зураб, ზურაბ (Abkhaz, Georgian)
- Sohrab Սոհրաբ (Armenian)
- Sührab, Süraab (Azeri)
- Suhrab, Sukhrab Сухраб (Kazakh, Kyrgyz)
- Suhrob سهراب, Суҳроб Суһроб (Kurdish, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek)
- Sehrab, Sohrab سہراب (Urdu)
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