How did Hanuman get his name?

Lord Hanuman is an important God as far as Hinduism is concerned. He is one of the Chiranjeevis or the immortals. Apart from his most popular name Hanuman, he is also known as Anjaneya (Son of Anjana), Maruti (Son of Marut, the Wind God), Bajrang Bali (the strong one who has limbs as hard as the Vajra) etc.

We may wonder why he was named as Hanuman. There are two stories regarding this.

The first story is from Bhavishya Purana. It says –
When Hanuman was a child, he mistook the Sun as a fruit and flew towards it to devour it. When he devoured the Sun, darkness prevailed everywhere and all were worried. Seeing this, Ravana, the demon king tried to free the Sun by taking hold of the tail of Hanuman and hung in there. But still Hanuman did not release the Sun from his mouth.
After that a fierce fist fighting took place in between Hanuman and Ravana for a whole year. At the end Ravana got tired and tried to escape. But Hanuman did not let him go. At this moment Rishi Vishrava (Ravana’s father) came to the scene and pleased Hanuman by reciting Veda Mantras. Then Hanuman got pleased and let Ravana go.
After this incident the son of Anjana or Anjaneya was called as “Hanuman” because he tried to hit (Hanan or हनन in Sanskrit) Ravana with his fists.

 As per another story or legend, when Hanuman devoured the Sun, darkness prevailed everywhere. So to save the world, Lord Indra came to the rescue of the Sun and hit Hanuman with his weapon Vajra. Hanuman was hit by the Vajra on his jaw (Hanu or हनु in Sanskrit). As a result, his jaw got disfigured or inflamed. That is how he got the name “Hanuman” that means – one with a prominent or disfigured jaw. 

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