A Japanese name meaning 'future.'
Mirai is a Japanese given name written most commonly with the kanji 未来, meaning future — literally the characters for not yet and come, creating a compound that describes the time that has not yet arrived. It is a name of crystalline optimism, given to children as a wish and a declaration: may you carry the future within you. In Japanese culture, names carry heavy semantic weight, and choosing a name that means future is an unusually explicit act of forward orientation — a parent's hope that their child will inhabit the world that is still becoming.
The name gained significant international profile through Mirai Nagasu, the American figure skater of Japanese descent who became the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Winter Olympics (Pyeongchang, 2018). Her achievement made the name recognizable far beyond Japanese-speaking communities and gave it an association with athletic grace and barrier-breaking achievement. In Japan, Mirai has been used for both boys and girls, though in contemporary usage it trends feminine.
It also appears as a Slavic given name in some Eastern European contexts, derived from the peace-root mir, meaning world or peace — an entirely separate etymology that happens to produce the same sound. For non-Japanese parents in the English-speaking world, Mirai appeals for several reasons: it is short and phonetically accessible, it carries a meaning that is both clear and profound, and it sits in the growing category of East Asian names that have crossed into multicultural naming practice. The three syllables flow easily in English (mee-RYE or MEER-eye depending on the speaker), and the name's meaning — future — is arguably the most hopeful thing any parent could name a child.