A Persian or Iranian name is made up of a first name and then the last name of the family.
Sometimes more than one first name is given. Many names are taken from Arabic, Greek, Assyrian and Armenian names. About 10-15% of the names come from a Persian literature book known as Shahnameh which means Epic of the Kings. This book written in the 10th century is highly valued by Iranians and considered a masterpiece of Persian literature. Some examples of suggested first names in this book include Abtin, Ardeshir, Armeen, Arzhang, Babak, Bijan, Bizhan, Bozorgmehr, Darab, Esfandiar, Esfandyar, Faramarz, Farhad, Fariborz, Farshid and Farzad.
Before the use of surnames (family names), people were known by the district, city, town or village from where they came from. Different beginnings and endings were put on the first names. Today, Persians use first and last names. Below is a list of common boys’ names, girls’ names and surnames.
Boys’ Names
Abbas · Abolfazl · Abdollah · Ahmad · Ali · Ali Reza · Amir · Arash · Ardeshir
Bijan
Dariush · Davoud
Ebrahim · Ehsan · Eskandar · Esmail
Farhad · Farshid
Ghasem
Habib · Hamed · Hashem · Hassan · Hossein
Jamshid · Javad
Kamran · Karim · Kazem · Kourosh
Mahmoud · Majid · Manuchehr · Masoud · Mehdi Meysam · Milad · Mohammad · Mohsen · Mostafa
Omid
Qaisar
Rahman · Rasoul · Reza
Saeed · Samir · Shahin
Vahid
Yaghoub · Yahya · Younes · Yousef
Girls’ Names
Anousheh · Astar · Azadeh
Farnaz · Farzaneh · Fatemeh · Fereshteh
Jaleh
Laleh · Leila
Mahshid · Maryam · Mina
Nasrin · Nazanin · Niloufar
Parisa · Parvin
Reyhan · Roksaneh · Roya
Sara · Simin
Taraneh
Yasmin
Zahra · Zaynab
Common Surnames (Last names)
Abbasi · Abed · Akbari · Alizadeh
Ebrahimi · Esfahani
Ghorbani
Hosseini
Jafari · Jamshidi
Kazemi · Khadem · Khorasani
Madani · Mazandarani · Mohammadi · Mokri
Pahlavi · Paria
Rahimi · Rezaei
Salehi · Shirazi
Tehrani
Online Persian lessons for kids: dinolingo.com