Entry № 2005 · Sanskrit origin

Chitra Chitra — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ CHEE-trah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Sanskrit
Meaning
"Picture / brilliant (iconic Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Ancient (Sanskrit)

A name that means "picture / brilliant (iconic chitra banerjee divakaruni)".

Chitra is from the Sanskrit citrā (चित्रा — picture, painting, brilliant, multi-colored). Chitra in Sanskrit tradition — the Sanskrit concept of pictorial beauty; central to classical Indian art and astronomy; Chitra is also one of the 27 Hindu nakshatras (lunar mansions) — central to Hindu/Vedic astrology since the Vedic period (c. 1500 BCE); appears throughout classical Sanskrit literature including the iconic Mahabharata, in which the princess Chitrāngadā (one of the wives of Arjuna) is featured. Chitrāngadā — iconic Mahabharata princess. Chitra Aiyar — modern Indian-American academic. Princess Chitra — Hindu heritage naming.

and South Asian American literature.

Picture / brilliant (Sanskrit).

The name in its native script.

चित्रा
Transliteration
Citrā
Pronunciation
/ ˈtʃiː.trə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Chitra stands.

Chitra does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Chitras before her.

Real people
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Indian-American novelist + Palace of Illusions.
born 1956
In fiction
Chitrāngadā
Iconic Mahabharata princess.

Names connected to Chitra.

The number behind Chitra.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Chitra reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.