Boy · Sanskrit · Hindu
Shiv
शिवSay it SHIV
- Meaning
- Auspicious, kind, benign; the god Śiva Monier-Williams, p. 1074
- Say it
- SHIV
- Written
- शिव
- Other spellings
- Shiva, Siva
Shiv
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Shiv meaning
Shiv (शिव) is a Hindu boy's name of Sanskrit origin.
Auspicious, kind, benign; the god Śiva
Shiv (शिव) is the modern spoken form of Sanskrit śiva, "auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, friendly". As the name of the god, Monier-Williams explains it as "the Auspicious one", the destroying and reproducing god who forms the Trimūrti with Brahmā the creator and Viṣṇu the preserver. MW notes that the Veda knows this god only as Rudra, "the terrible", and that Śiva began as a kindly, euphemistic name for him, much as the Greeks called the Furies "the gracious ones". As a neuter noun śiva also means welfare, prosperity and bliss. Name lists give the same meanings, "auspicious" or "benevolent". Shiv is used on its own and in compounds such as Shivkumar and Shivraj.
In Hindu tradition this is a name of Shiva.
Source: Monier-Williams, Sanskrit–English Dictionary (1899), p. 1074 · entry śiva · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026
References: Monier-Williams, śiva, p. 1074
Famous namesakes
- Shiva, one of the principal deities of Hinduism
Popularity abroad
- #896 England and Wales, boys 2025
Office for National Statistics
Official birth registrations. India publishes no national name statistics.
Spellings
Shiv · Shiva · Siva