or MITHRADA'TES (Μιθριδάτης or Μιθραδάτης), a common name among the Medes and Persians, appears to have been derived from Mitra or Mithra, the Persian name for the sun, and the root da, signifying " to give," which occurs in most of the Indo-Germanic languages. It therefore signifies "given by the sun," and corresponds to a large class of names in different languages of the Indo Germanic family. Thus in Sanskrit we find the names, Devadatta, Haradatta, Indradatta, Somadatta, &c. (i. e. given by the gods, by Hara or Siva, by Indra, by Soma or the moon, &c.); in Greek, the names Theodots, Diodotus, Zenodotas, Herodotus, &c.; and in Persian, the names, Hormisdates, " given by Ormuzd," Pherendates, "given by Behrum," &c.
The name of Mithridates is written in several ways. Mithridates is the form usually found in the Greek historians; but on coins, and sometimes in writers, we find Mithradates, which is probably the more correct form. We also meet with Mitradates (Μιτραδάτης, Hdt. 1.110), and in Tacitus (Tac. Ann. 12.10) a corrupted form Meherdates. (Pott, Etymologische Forschungen, vol. i. p. xlvii. &c. ; Rosen, in Journal of Education, vol. ix. pp. 334, 335.)