MEANING & HISTORY
What does Amir mean?
Amir is an Arabic word meaning commander or prince, used as a personal name. It began as a title and is also familiar in English through the related borrowing emir.
The title’s lexical meaning explains the name without conferring a real office on its bearer. The saved name entry traces it directly to Arabic. This is distinct from treating the short spelling as a modern compound assembled from the letters of other names.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Synthetic voice reading
Origin and name formation
Arabic
Dictionary accounts by language
English
From Arabic أَمِير (ʔamīr, “commander, prince”). Doublet of amir, emir, admiral, and amira.
A male given name from Arabic.
Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract; common glosses translated for Filipino.
People with the name Amir
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Amir Hussin Hamsain
Filipino swimmer
Descriptions: Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Similar names to Amir
Explore names with a similar opening or ending.
Names in this collection
- Amer♂Arabic Aamir transcription, prosperous or thriving
- Amie♀Beloved; variant of Amy
- Amin♂Truthful or trustworthy in Arabic
- Amor♀Love in Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese
- Emir·Amir form: commander or prince
- Ramir♂Ramiro family; famous element, first root disputed
- Ama♀Born on Saturday in the Akan day-name tradition
- Amber♀Amber gem-name; also a separate Hindi name
Explore Amir further
Records & sources
Recorded use
- OpenHalalan / COMELEC · 2001
- 1 elected-candidate records ·
AMIR
· CSV row 7,034 · ODbL 1.0 - Wikidata
- 1 person records with this given name · Q6320022 · CC0
These records document use of the spelling; they are separate from birth statistics.
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
- Wikidata given-name item Q6320022 — Amir (opens in a new tab)
- Wikidata — Amir Hussin Hamsain (opens in a new tab)
- Wiktionary contributors — Amir (English) (opens in a new tab)
- Behind the Name — Amir (opens in a new tab)