Bahram

Before it was a personal name, Bahram was a god. Verethragna, the Zoroastrian divinity of victory, became Bahram in Middle Persian, and from there became the name given to the planet Mars and to six Sasanian kings, the most famous of them Bahram V — Bahram Gur, the wild-ass hunter — whose exploits fill entire chapters of the Shahnameh and gave later poets more material than they could exhaust in a career.

Two assured beats, bah-RAHM, with a final consonant that clips cleanly. Rendered بهرام in Persian script, the name remains in steady use in Iran while staying nearly unknown in English-speaking countries, which preserves its full register — mythic without being heavy, a warrior name that still sounds comfortable in a city. The Zoroastrian layer sits under the Islamic-era use, giving it an unusual depth for a two-syllable name. Bahram pairs naturally with traditional Persian surnames and carries the rare distinction of having been both a deity and a planet before anyone used it as a first name.