100+ Names That Mean Moon From Every Culture (2026)

This list collects more than 120 names that mean moon, sorted into girl, boy and unisex sections, followed by the names of moon deities, lunar words that only evoke the moon, and a handful of moon surnames. Every entry gives the origin language and the accepted meaning, and where a name only borrows the moon's glow rather than its meaning, the entry says so.

How to use this list

Start with the section that matches what you need and read the meanings, not just the sounds. Names like Luna and Selene translate directly as "moon". Names like Aylin or Mahtab describe the moon's halo or its light, and names like Artemis or Diana belong to moon goddesses but mean something else entirely. All three types are here, labelled, so you can decide how literal you want to be.

If you want a shortlist built around a sound, a length or a sibling's name rather than a single meaning, run the Baby Name Generator and filter from there. For other themes, the hub at more names by meaning collects every list in this series.

Girl names that mean moon

The moon is grammatically feminine in Latin and the Romance languages, and most of the world's moon deities are goddesses, so the girls' section is the longest. Turkish and Persian contribute the biggest single groups because both languages build compound names from their word for moon. If you want the brighter end of the sky, the companion lists of names that mean light and names that mean sun overlap with several entries here.

Latin, Greek and European

Luna — Latin, “moon”; also the Roman moon goddess
Lunetta — Italian, “little moon”
Lunette — French, “little moon”
Lua — Portuguese, “moon”; used in Brazil and Portugal
Lune — French, “moon”; rare as a given name
Selene — Greek, “moon”; the Titan goddess who drove the moon's chariot
Selena — Latinised Greek, “moon”
Neoma — Greek, “new moon”, from neos and mene
Menodora — Greek, “gift of the moon”
Lusine — Armenian, “moon”, from lusin; also spelled Lucine
Ilargi — Basque, “moon”; literally “light of the dead”
Ilazki — Basque, “moon”, a regional form of Ilargi
Kuutar — Finnish, “moon maiden”; a spirit in the Kalevala
Levana — Hebrew, “moon”; the poetic word, literally “white”

Turkish, Persian and Central Asian

Aylin — Turkish, “moon halo”
Ayla — Turkish, “moonlight, halo of the moon”; the Hebrew Ayla means “oak”
Aysel — Turkish, “moon stream”, ay and sel
Aynur — Turkish, “moon light”, ay and the Arabic nur
Ayça — Turkish, “crescent moon”
Aysu — Turkish, “moon water”
Aybike — Turkish, “moon lady”
Aygül — Turkish, “moon rose”
Aydan — Turkish, “from the moon”
Esmeray — Turkish, “dark moon”
Aigerim — Kazakh, “my wonderful moon”
Aisulu — Kazakh, “beautiful moon”
Aidana — Kazakh, “wise moon”
Mahtab — Persian, “moonlight”
Mahnaz — Persian, “the moon's grace”
Mahsa — Persian, “like the moon”
Mahrukh — Persian, “moon-faced”
Mahnoor — Persian and Urdu, “light of the moon”
Mahjabeen — Persian and Urdu, “moon-browed”
Sarangerel — Mongolian, “moonlight”, saran and gerel
Sarantuya — Mongolian, “moonbeam”

South and East Asian

Chandrika — Sanskrit, “moonlight”
Indu — Sanskrit, “moon”
Indumati — Sanskrit, “full moon”; a queen in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsha
Purnima — Sanskrit, “full moon”; also the full-moon day itself
Jyotsna — Sanskrit, “moonlight”
Kaumudi — Sanskrit, “moonlight”
Chandni — Hindi, “moonlight”
Tsukiko — Japanese, “moon child”, tsuki and ko
Mizuki — Japanese, “beautiful moon” when written 美月; meaning depends on kanji
Mitsuki — Japanese, “beautiful moon” or “light of the moon”; kanji-dependent
Mingyue — Chinese, “bright moon”
Nguyệt — Vietnamese, “moon”, from the Sino-Vietnamese reading of 月
Chantra — Thai, “moon”, borrowed from Sanskrit chandra
Wulan — Javanese, “moon”

Arabic, African, Pacific and the Americas

Hala — Arabic, “halo around the moon”
Badriya — Arabic, “like the full moon”
Kamaria — Swahili, “like the moon”, from the Arabic qamar
Mahina — Hawaiian, “moon”
Mahealani — Hawaiian, “heavenly moon”; the name of the full-moon night
Masina — Samoan, “moon”
Marama — Māori, “moon”; also “light”
Killa — Quechua, “moon”; Mama Killa was the Inca moon goddess
Küyen — Mapudungun, “moon”; also spelled Cuyen

Boy names that mean moon

Where the moon is masculine, in Norse, Sanskrit, Arabic and the Turkic languages, boys' names follow. Sanskrit is unusually rich here because classical poetry gave the moon a dozen epithets, and most of them are still given as names in India.

Máni — Old Norse, “moon”; the god who steers the moon across the sky
Yerah — Hebrew, “moon, month”; spelled Jerah in Genesis
Hilal — Arabic, “crescent moon”
Badr — Arabic, “full moon”; usually male, as in Badr al-Din
Aytaç — Turkish, “moon crown”
Ayberk — Turkish, “strong moon”
Aykut — Turkish, “sacred moon”
Ayhan — Turkish, “moon ruler”
Aybars — Turkish, “moon leopard”
Chandran — Tamil and Malayalam, “moon”
Rakesh — Sanskrit, “lord of the full-moon night”
Chandrakant — Sanskrit, “beloved of the moon”; also the word for moonstone
Chandrashekhar — Sanskrit, “crowned with the moon”, an epithet of Shiva
Somnath — Sanskrit, “lord of the moon”, another epithet of Shiva
Himanshu — Sanskrit, “cool-rayed”, a poetic name for the moon
Shashank — Sanskrit, “hare-marked”, the moon
Sudhanshu — Sanskrit, “nectar-rayed”, the moon
Sudhakar — Sanskrit, “maker of nectar”, the moon
Nishakar — Sanskrit, “maker of the night”, the moon
Chandresh — Sanskrit, “lord of the moon”
Candra — Indonesian, “moon”, from Sanskrit
Mėnulis — Lithuanian, “moon”; the Baltic moon god
Mēness — Latvian, “moon”; the moon god of Latvian folk song
Taqqiq — Inuktitut, “moon”

Unisex names that mean moon

Many languages use their plain word for moon as a name for either sex. Several of these read as masculine at home and feminine abroad; Chandra is the clearest case, common for men in India and for women in the English-speaking world.

Chandra — Sanskrit, “moon, shining”; the Hindu moon god
Chand — Hindi and Urdu, “moon”
Shashi — Sanskrit, “hare-marked”, the moon
Qamar — Arabic, “moon”
Yue — Chinese, “moon”, 月
Tsuki — Japanese, “moon”
Dal — Korean, “moon”; the native Korean word, used in modern given names
Jaci — Tupi, “moon”; the moon deity of Tupi-Guarani myth, also spelled Jacy
Metztli — Nahuatl, “moon”; an Aztec lunar deity
Konane — Hawaiian, “bright moonlight”
Mwezi — Swahili, “moon, month”
Kuu — Finnish, “moon”
Bulan — Malay, Indonesian and Filipino, “moon”
Saran — Mongolian, “moon”
Chandara — Khmer, “moon”
Sahar — Hebrew, “crescent moon”; the Arabic Sahar means “dawn”
Ay — Turkish, “moon”, used alone and as the root of the Ay- names above

Moon deities and moon-adjacent names

These are the names people most often mean when they search for moon names, and they are also the ones that do not literally mean moon. Artemis and Diana are moon goddesses; their names mean something else, or nothing anyone can prove. The entries below give the deity's role and then the actual meaning, so you are choosing with open eyes. The same honesty applies to the darker end of the series, where names that mean death are mostly the names of underworld gods.

Moon goddesses and gods

Artemis — Greek, goddess of the moon and the hunt; literal meaning debated
Diana — Latin, Roman goddess of the moon; the name means “divine”
Phoebe — Greek, “bright”; a Titan and an epithet of Artemis as moon goddess
Cynthia — Greek, “from Mount Kynthos”; another epithet of Artemis
Pandia — Greek, daughter of Selene and Zeus; meaning debated, perhaps “all-bright”
Arianrhod — Welsh, “silver wheel”; a lunar figure in the Mabinogion
Hina — Polynesian moon goddess across Hawaii, Tahiti and Aotearoa; meaning debated
Kaguya — Japanese, the moon princess of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter; the name means “radiant”
Tsukuyomi — Japanese, moon god of Shinto; “moon reading” or “moon night”
Chang'e — Chinese, goddess who lives on the moon; the characters mean “graceful, beautiful”
Hằng — Vietnamese, from Hằng Nga, the moon goddess; the word itself means “constant”
Ixchel — Maya, goddess linked to the moon; the name means “Lady Rainbow”
Mayari — Tagalog, goddess of the moon; literal meaning debated
Nanna — Sumerian moon god; meaning debated, unrelated to the Norse Nanna
Iah — Egyptian, “moon”; a minor lunar god, one of the few deity names that translates literally
Khonsu — Egyptian moon god; the name means “traveller”
Soma — Sanskrit, the ritual drink and the moon god identified with it
Mona — often listed as “moon” from Old English mōna, but the given name is Irish, from Muadhnait, “noble”
Runa — Japanese spelling of Luna; the unrelated Norse Runa means “secret lore”

Moons of the solar system

Astronomers named the planets' moons after Greek and Roman figures, so these are moon names by association only. The meanings are the original mythological ones.

Callisto — Greek, “most beautiful”; a moon of Jupiter
Elara — Greek, meaning unknown; a moon of Jupiter
Europa — Greek, “wide-faced” is the usual gloss, but debated; a moon of Jupiter
Io — Greek, meaning debated; Jupiter's innermost large moon
Rhea — Greek, meaning debated, perhaps “flowing”; a moon of Saturn
Dione — Greek, “divine”; a moon of Saturn
Titania — Latin, “of the Titans”; Shakespeare's fairy queen and a moon of Uranus
Larissa — Greek, “citadel”; a moon of Neptune

Moon surnames and place names

A few surnames look like moon names and are sometimes used as first names. Most of them got there by a different road, and the entries say which.

Moon — English surname, from Norman French moun, “monk”; the moon meaning is modern reinterpretation
Mun — Korean surname 문, romanised Moon; the character 文 means “writing, culture”
De Luna — Spanish surname from the town of Luna in Aragon, itself named for the moon
Monday — English, “moon's day”, from Old English mōnandæg; originally a surname for a Monday birth
Jericho — Hebrew place name, possibly from yareach, “moon”; “fragrant” is the rival reading

Frequently asked questions

Does Artemis mean moon?

No. Artemis is the Greek goddess of the moon, but the name itself has no agreed meaning; ancient writers connected it to words for “safe” and “butcher”, and modern scholars suspect a pre-Greek origin. If you want a Greek name that literally means moon, choose Selene or Neoma.

What girl names mean moon?

Luna, Selene, Aylin, Ayla, Mahina, Chandrika, Tsukiko, Neoma, Lusine, Marama, Killa and Hala all mean moon or describe the moon directly. The girls' section above lists more than fifty, grouped by language family.

What boy names mean moon?

Máni, Hilal, Badr, Chandran, Rakesh, Himanshu, Shashank and Aytaç are the most established. Chandra, Qamar and Yue are used for boys as well as girls, so check the unisex section too.

Is Mona a moon name?

Not by origin. Mona as a given name comes from the Irish Muadhnait, meaning “noble”, or from the Italian madonna. The link to Old English mōna, “moon”, is a folk etymology, though it is common enough that some parents choose Mona for that reason anyway.

What is the difference between Luna and Selene?

Both mean “moon” and both name the moon goddess, Luna in Latin and Selene in Greek. Luna is the far more common given name today; Selene is rarer and sounds more classical. Selena is the same name with a Latin ending. For the opposite pole, see the list of names that mean fire.