Iranian Name Generator

Iranian names draw on two deep wells. The older is Persian: names from pre-Islamic history and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh such as Dariush, Kourosh, Rostam, Sohrab, Manijeh, Tahmineh, and Rudabeh, plus everyday Persian words for light and nature like Mehrdad (gift of the sun), Nasrin (wild rose), Bahar (spring), and Setareh (star). The newer is Arabic-Islamic: Mohammad, Ali, Hossein, Fatemeh, Zahra, and Maryam, often combined into compounds like Amirhossein, Mohammadreza, and Alireza that are among the most common names in Iran today.

Surnames only became mandatory in 1925 under Reza Shah, so most Iranian family names are recent and transparent. Many end in -i, meaning of or from: Tehrani, Shirazi, Esfahani, and Kermani come from cities, while Bakhtiari and Qashqai come from tribes. Others build on a given name with -zadeh (born of), -pour (son of), or -ian: Mohammadzadeh, Abbaspour, Ahmadian. The prefix Seyed or Seyedeh marks descent from the Prophet and is often written as part of the name.

Women keep their own surnames after marriage in Iran, and children take the father's. The names below span devout and secular families, big cities and provinces, and the diaspora, so a cast can feel like real Tehran rather than a single stereotype.