Persian name

Prior to the reign of Reza Shah (r. 1925 - 1941), the people of Persia (Iran) did not use surnames. A person was often distinguished from others by a combination of prefixes and suffixes attached to his name which, if omitted, might cause him to be taken for someone else. [cite book |author=Salmani, Ustad Muhammad-`Aliy-i, the Barber |coauthors=Gail, Marizieh (tr.) |title=My Memories of Bahá'u'lláh |publisher=Kalimát Press |date=1982 |location=Los Angeles, USA |pages=p. 123 |id=ISBN 0-933770-21-9 ]

In many cases an individual was known by the name of the district, city, town, or even the village from which they came by using the locality's name as a suffix, for example: Nuri, Khorasani, Mazandarani, Tehrani, Esfahani, and Shirazi.

Honorifics, Prefixes & Suffixes

*Aqa آقا - Sir, mister. General term of respect.
*Darvish درويش- A Sufi mystic or a spiritual Guru (Dervish).
*Haji حاجى- As a prefix, one who had made the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
*Karbala'i كربلايى- As a prefix, one who has made the pilgrimage to Karbala. As a suffix, one from Karbala.
*Khan خان- As a suffix, served at one time as a title for an honored person.
*Mashhadi مشهدى- As a prefix, one who has made the pilgrimage to Mashad. As a suffix, one from Mashad. Often shortened to مش (Mash).
*Mir میر- As a prefix generally indicates seyed descent.
*Mirza ميرزا- Shortened version of "Amir Zade." As a prefix, a general term of respect which usually indicates that the one designated is literate. As a suffix, it indicates a man of royal descent.
*Mullah ملا- A Muslim cleric.
*Ostad استاد- A master craftsman, lecturer or a person who is the master of a profession.
*Jenaab- As a prefix, excellency.

Final days

Among many other secularization and modernization reforms, surnames were required by Reza Shah, following similar contemporary patterns in Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and later in Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser. [cite journal |last=Tehranian |first=Majid |title=Disenchanted Worlds: Seculartization and Democratization in the Middle East |journal=Paper for Presentation at the World Congress of International Political Science Association |date=August 1-5, 2000 |url=http://www2.hawaii.edu/~majid/draft_papers/secularization/secularization.html |accessdate=2006-09-28 ]

ee also

*Family name

References