Names That Mean Light

Names meaning light, bright, shining or radiant. Worth reading closely: light in a name is often a metaphor for fame or for clarity rather than for brightness, and the two senses sit on one root in several languages.

Every name here has a researched page whose stated meaning carries this sense.

Rankings for

17 names, rare — 25 to 99 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Bobbie Bobbie is 83 percent female in our records and England and Wales ranks it 523rd on 110 births — far above the United States at 2072nd, reversing what an American nickname-name would usually do.
Unisex English 96 in 2025
Aoife Aoife is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "beautiful" or "radiant."
Girl Irish 88 in 2025
Dawn Dawn is a girl's name taken directly from the English word for daybreak, and it is the English counterpart of Aurora rather than a translation of it.
Girl English 85 in 2025
Dianna Dianna means the shining one, and the root is the same one behind Zeus and Jupiter — an Indo-European word for the bright daytime sky that also gives us the ordinary word day.
Girl Latin 68 in 2025
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
Boy Germanic 49 in 2025
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
Girl Germanic 61 in 2025
Hubert Hubert means bright mind, and its saint is the patron of hunters — Saint Hubertus, whose stag with a crucifix between its antlers is the emblem on every bottle of Jägermeister.
Boy Germanic 34 in 2025
Niamh Niamh is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "bright" or "radiant."
Girl Irish 43 in 2025
Ora Ora has three unrelated sources — the Latin imperative meaning pray, the Hebrew for light, and an Albanian word for hour — and our data marks it reviving across three markets.
Unisex Latin 40 in 2025
Aine Aine is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "radiance" or "brightness," borne by a goddess of sovereignty and midsummer in Munster.
Girl Irish 39 in 2025
Rupert Rupert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
Boy Germanic 29 in 2025
Wilbur Wilbur ranks 579th in England and Wales against 3956th in the United States, so a name most people think of as thoroughly American is now used more than six times more readily in England.
Boy English 27 in 2025
Albie Albie is a boy's name of Germanic origin, most often a pet form of Albert, meaning "noble and bright."
Boy Germanic 32 in 2025
Fionn Fionn is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "fair" or "white," and by extension bright or blessed.
Boy Irish 25 in 2025
Muriel Muriel means bright sea, from Gaelic, and it reached English twice — once through Irish and Scottish settlement and once through Breton, carried back across the Channel by the Normans.
Girl Irish 32 in 2025
Bertha Bertha is a girl's name from a Germanic word meaning bright, and it was Charlemagne's mother's name.
Girl Germanic 30 in 2025
Lucile Lucile means light, and France ranks it 467th while the United States has it at 5006th — a French name that America had and lost, having peaked there in 1917.
Girl French 26 in 2025

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Names That Mean Light

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