Asparukh (name)

{{Infobox given name2

| name = Asparukh

| image=

| image_size=

| caption=

| pronunciation=

| gender = Male

| meaning =

• Possessor of Shining Horses (aspa + rauk)
• Horse-souled (aspa + rah)

| origin = Iranian

| seealso =

}}

Asparukh is a Middle Iranian male name,{{cite book| author=Hyun Jin Kim |title=The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCpncXFzoFgC |pages=168|isbn=9781107009066 }} attested in ancient Georgia and early medieval Bulgaria. It is a compound with the two elements: "aspa" (horse) and "rauk" (shine), meaning "he who has shining horses".[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asparukh-a-middle-iranian-proper-name-attested-in-ancient-georgia-and-early-medieval-bulgaria-grecized-as-asparoukis-app Encyclopedia Iranica online: Asparukh a Middle Iranian proper name attested in ancient Georgia and early medieval Bulgaria.] Some other researchers claim that the name is derived from "aspa" (horse) and "rah" (soul), meaning "one with a soul of a horse".[https://books.google.com/books?id=D_YGAQAAIAAJ&q=%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%83%D1%85+%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD+%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8 Bŭlgarski etimologichen rechnik, tom 1, Institut za bŭlgarski ezik (Bŭlgarska akademia na naukite) Vladimir Ivanov Georgiev, 1962, p.18.]

The two historically attested persons bearing this name are:

• Asparukh of Iberia, a viceroy of Armazi in Iberia (Georgia), contemporary of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138 AD).
• Asparukh of Bulgaria, founder of the First Bulgarian Empire in the 680s.