Mahdi — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ه-د-ي (h-d-y), "to guide, to show the way". Mahdī is the passive participle: one who has been guided — not one who guides himself, and that grammatical detail is the whole point of the name. The guidance is received, not generated.

From the same root: hudā (guidance, the word that opens al-Baqara's description of the Qur'an as guidance for the God-conscious), hidāya (the act of guiding), hādī (guide; al-Hādī is among the names of God), ihtidāʾ (to be rightly guided), muhtadī (one who finds the way), hadiyya (a gift — what is sent ahead to someone), and ihdinā, the verb in the opening chapter's plea "guide us to the straight path", al-Fatiha 1:6. The name Huda and the name Hadi come from the same place.

Spellings: Mahdi, Mehdi, Mahdy, Mehdi (Turkish; also Mehdi as a surname), Mahdi (Indonesian), Mehdi or Mahdi (Urdu), Mehdi (French/Maghrebi, very common in Morocco and Algeria), مهدي.

Pronunciation: MAH-dee — two syllables, stress on the first. The h is hāʾ, a clear breathy h from the throat, pronounced fully and never dropped as English speakers tend to do mid-word.

Feminine counterpart: Mahdiyya, and Huda from the same root.