The origin of the name is Slavic. It means: peace, great, illustrous. Slavon correspondence: Miroslav/ Mirco which translates to "the glory of peace". It is a male name but it is sometimes used as a family name.
Prince Mircea Grigore Carol Lambrino, son of Carol II of Romania and his morganic wife Joanna Marie Valentina "Zizi" Lambrino. Later called Carol, he was named in memory of his father's younger brother, Prince Mircea who had died just four years earlier.
Prince Mircea was recognized as the son of King Ferdinand of Romania and his wife, Queen Marie of Romania though it's thought that his father was Prince Barbu Ştirbey, the lover of the Queen. Mircea died at the age of three from typhoid fever.
May even derive from a popular nickname form in South Slavic (maybe even in other Slavic langs) - with "-če". So any name which ends with "mir" in Slavic names would have as one of their nicknames "Mirče" (at least in Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian). It is pronounced "MIR-che".
Another famous bearer was the grandson of Mircea cel Batran / cel Mare (the Elder and the Great, respectively), Mircea cel Tanar / II. Mircea II was the oldest son of Vlad II Dracul (making him the brother of Vlad III Dracula). He was blinded with a red hot poker and buried alive.
― Anonymous User 8/21/2008
2
Pronounced MEER-cha.
― Anonymous User 10/31/2007
3
Perhaps it is a derived name from the Scythian name Mirxas (pron. Mirshas) which might have the same etymology. Scythians were a ancient tribe of Dacians, the ancestors of Romanians, and maybe this is the reason the name persists.
Mircea Eliade was an excellent writer, philosopher and historian of religion. His preocupation for this last subject brought him exciting new points of view, wich he shares with us in his many books.
Mircea cel Batran (Mircea the Elder) was a famous Romanian King, adding his name to history mainly because of a very famous Poem (Scrisoare III - Letter III) by one of the most important Romantic Romanian poets, Mihai Eminescu (19th Century).