Why Persia Became Iran: The Story Behind the Name Shift
Discover the Evolution of a Nation's Identity
When speaking about Iran, you may have heard people referring to it as โPersiaโ, often remembering its rich history and glorious ancient empires. Indeed, many people associate the name โPersiaโ with its glorious past while โIranโ is more often used to describe its modern state. But whatโs the story behind that name change and when exactly did Persia become Iran? In this article, find out why this change occur and how Persia became Iran.
Contents
Persia: An Ancient Exonym
The name โPersiaโ has been used by the Western world for centuries to refers to Iran. It originates from โParsa,โ a region in southwestern Iran, home to the founders of the Persian Empire, with Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC. Even though the term “Parsa” referred to a specific region, Greek historians have extended it to describe the entire empire, and this usage stayed in the western languages.
However, โPersiaโ was largely an exonym: a name given by outsiders. Internally, the people of the region referred to their land as something different. Indeed, for thousands of years, names like “Aryanam” (in the proto-Iranian language), “Iranzamin” (Land of Iran), or simply “Iran” were used by people themselves to describe their homeland.
The Name Change in 1935
Itโs in 1935 that Persia officially became โIranโ. That change was decided by Reza Shah Pahlavi, the king of the country at the time. During a Nowruz gathering on the 21st of March 1935, Reza Shah requested that foreign delegates start using the term โIranโ in all their official correspondences instead of โPersia.โ
The term “Iran” originates from Middle Persian and was first associated with Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian Empire. At Naqsh-e Rustam and on Ardashir’s coins, he is titled “Ardashir, King of Kings of Aryans (Iran)”. Both “Iran” (Sasanian Pahlavi) and “Aryan” (Parthian Pahlavi) were used to refer to the collective Iranian peoples, deriving from the proto-Iranian term Arya. Historically, the Sasanian dynasty was the first to politically use the term “Iranshahr” to denote the empire, whereas earlier records only referenced the lands of the non-Aryans.
To understand his decision, one has to get a bit more familiar with the first Pahlavi king and father of the last Iranian king Mohammad Reza Shah. Coming from a modest background, Reza Pahlavi joined the military early where he gradually rose in power, fed by a strong ambition for its country. Itโs in 1921, with a coup dโEtat, that Reza Shah became king, marking the end of the Qajar dynasty. He then immediately began large-scale reforms to make his country enter modernity.
Indeed, Reza Shah had the sense that the country was late into modernity compared to Western countries and he wanted to change how Persia was perceived. Hence, he decided to change the name to โIranโ to break away from the countryโs colonial image and negative images associated with โPersiaโ because of the ruling the previous Qajar kings, which were perceived by the West as decadents, in debt, and in decline.
For Reza Shah, “Persia” symbolized the past, while “Iran” was a name for the future. By adopting this name, Reza Shah also wanted to create a new sense of national identity, rooted in ancient history.
Why โIranโ?
The name โIranโ has indeed deep historical roots. It derives from “Airyan,” meaning โthe land of the Aryans.โ This name appears in the ancient Avesta texts (the sacred writings of Zoroastrianism) and later on in the inscriptions from the Achaemenid Empire, where rulers referred to their land as belonging to the Iranians. During the Sassanid period, the term “eran” was also used to refer to both the people and the empire.
Thus, when Reza Shah chose โIran,โ he was reconnecting the country with its own historical identity.
Persia and Iran: The Confusion Continues
Although the name change was official in 1935, both โPersiaโ and โIranโ continued to be used. In fact, during World War II, Winston Churchill asked the Iranian government to use โPersiaโ again to avoid confusion between Iran and Iraq, which were both occupied by the Allies. This request was accepted for the duration of the war, but after the conflict ended, โIranโ remained the dominant name in official use.
Later, in 1959, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Shahโs son, also announced that both โPersiaโ and โIranโ could be used interchangeably in formal correspondence, allowing some flexibility in how the country was referred to, especially in cultural and historical contexts.
Today: Persia vs. Iran
Today, โIranโ is the official name of the country, but โPersiaโ is still commonly used when referring to its ancient empire, rich history, and cultural heritage. Many Iranians also prefer the name โPersiaโ as they think it reflects best the countryโs glorious past, while โIranโ is used more in political and modern-day contexts. Itโs interesting to note that since the establishment of the Islamic Republic on the 1st of April 1979, the countryโs full name is โJomhuri-ye Eslรขmi-ye Irรขnโ, which translate to โIslamic Republic of Iranโ.
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