Sahasranama (सहस्रनामन्, IAST: Sahasranāman) is a Sanskrit-origin Hindu boy-name meaning “He who bears a thousand sacred names”. From sahasra (thousand, innumerable) and nāman (name), this self-referential epithet crowns Viṣṇu within the very hymn that enumerates his names, affirming that his glories are boundless and inexhaustible.

Meaning, etymology & significance

This extraordinary name appears within the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma itself, functioning as both a divine attribute and a meta-declaration: the Lord who is being praised by a thousand names is himself named Sahasranāman, the bearer of those very names. In Indian philosophical thought, a name is not arbitrary but carries the essence of its bearer — and so a thousand names means a thousand facets of one infinite reality. The recitation of this name is held to encapsulate the merit of the entire stotra.

Sahasranāman is unique among the Sahasranāma epithets in its self-referential majesty; though rarely given as a personal name in its full form, the element Sahasra appears in several Indian names. Pronounced sa-has-ra-nā-man, with careful attention to the long ā in nāman.

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Scriptural source

Sahasranama appears in the Vishnu Sahasranama, among the sacred names of Vishnu.

Astrology — nakshatra, rashi & numerology

By the standard Vedic correspondence between a name’s first syllable and the lunar mansion, Sahasranama aligns with the Shatabhisha nakshatra, under the Kumbha rashi (Moon sign). Its Chaldean name-number is 9.