"The name "Persia" until 1935 was the "official" name of Iran in the Western world, but Persian people inside their country since the Sassanid period (226–651 A.D.) have called it "Iran" meaning "the land of Aryans". The Proto-Iranian term for Iran is reconstructed as *Aryānām (the genitive plural of the word *Arya) and the Avestan equivalent is "Airyanem" (as in Airyanem Vaejah). On 21 March 1935, the ruler of the country, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term Iran in formal correspondence. Some believe he made this decision in order to be closer to Germany, by trying to emphasize the Aryan connection between Hitler's idealistic German Aryan race and the Persian Aryan race, given that "Iran" means "land of Aryans", at a time where the German empire was slowly becoming an unstoppable superpower. Some other believed he changed "Persia" to "Iran" to present a new and modern face of the country in the world." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_naming…
Thanks. Wiki isn’t too bad & often provides external references.
>>>” I first heard of this while stationed in Teheran from 72-74 from some of the locals.”
Do you mean regarding “Iran being an ally of Nazi Germany” ? If yes, then it is plain Wrong. “Stultis” in post #7 gives a good, be it brief, account. Btw, there were only about a 1000 German nationals in Iran at the time. This number is apparently based on reports by British Embassy in Tehran in 1940.
Also, I do wonder who those “locals” were. You may already know that political agitation, disinformation & propaganda against the Pahlavis began at least 7 years before the actual revolution of 1979.
>>>” Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term Iran in formal correspondence. Some believe he made this decision in order to be closer to Germany, by trying to emphasize the Aryan connection between Hitler’s idealistic German Aryan race and the Persian Aryan race,..”
Ok, this is at best anecdotal. I am looking for Actual evidence which clearly provides proof that Reza Shah issued a decree for name change based on “Nazi requests”. Is there one? I haven’t found one as yet.
You’re right. There is tons of info about Etymology of Iran vs. Persia. Iran has always been the correct name for Iran (Eran) – regardless of Nazis or Germans in general. It refers to Aryan race & Language of those tribes originating from central Asia, who settled in the plateau of Iran circa 2000 B.C. Persia, on the other hand, only refers to one province of Iran (was called “Persis” by the Greeks centuries ago during Cyrus the Great). In Persian was called “Pars or Parsa”. Today it is called the “Fars” province (only changed after Arab-Muslim invasion of Iran).
I think it is important to clarify the above because many mullah (IRI) supporters use this name-change deliberately & often cleverly focus on the term “Aryan” to be divisive, misleading and portray the “Persian” ethnic group in Iran as racist. Equally, they are well aware that for Westerners, the term “Aryan” is immediately associated with Hitler and Nazi Germany.