Persian Girl and Boy Names With Meanings: 60 Names
60 Persian names, 30 for girls and 30 for boys, each with its Persian spelling and meaning, plus names grouped by theme and three pronunciation rules.
Short answer: Popular Persian girl names include Shirin (sweet), Setareh (star), Bahar (spring) and Yasamin (jasmine). Popular boy names include Arash, Kourosh (Cyrus), Dariush (Darius) and Kian. Most Persian names have a plain meaning you can look up, often a flower, a star, a season or a hero from the Shahnameh.
Below are 60 names, 30 for girls and 30 for boys, each with its Persian spelling and meaning. The meanings come from the name list we keep on this site, which has over 3,000 entries. I picked names you will actually meet in Iran and in Iranian families abroad, and left out the rare ones that need a history lesson to explain.
If you want the background first, how Persian naming works, which names signal what, and how to pronounce them without flattening them, read Persian names: meanings, history and how to pronounce them. This post is the lookup list.
30 Persian girl names with meanings
| # | Name | Persian | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anahita | آناهیتا | The ancient goddess of the waters and of fertility. |
| 2 | Arezu | آرزو | Hope. |
| 3 | Ava | آوا | A voice, a sound, a melody. |
| 4 | Azin | آذین | Ornament. |
| 5 | Bahar | بهار | Spring; the season of return. |
| 6 | Donya | دنیا | The world, all of it. |
| 7 | Dorsa | درسا | Like a pearl. |
| 8 | Faranak | فرانک | A butterfly; in poetry, the lover who burns. |
| 9 | Fereshteh | فرشته | An angel. |
| 10 | Golnar | گلنار | The pomegranate blossom. |
| 11 | Kimia | کیمیا | Alchemy; something rare and precious beyond price. |
| 12 | Leila | لیلا | Night; a dark-haired beauty, the beloved of Majnun. |
| 13 | Mahsa | مهسا | Like the moon; moon-faced, radiant. |
| 14 | Maryam | مریم | The tuberose flower, and the name of Mary. |
| 15 | Mina | مینا | Azure enamel and glasswork; also a small flower. |
| 16 | Mitra | میترا | Affection. |
| 17 | Mozhgan | مژگان | An eyelash. |
| 18 | Nasrin | نسرین | The wild rose, the eglantine. |
| 19 | Nazanin | نازنین | Tender, sweet, dearly loved. |
| 20 | Negar | نگار | Beloved; a painting so fine it seems alive. |
| 21 | Pardis | پردیس | Paradise. |
| 22 | Parisa | پریسا | Like a pari, a fairy of Persian myth. |
| 23 | Raha | رها | Delivered; set free. |
| 24 | Roya | رویا | A dream, a waking vision. |
| 25 | Sara | سارا | Pure and clear; a bright, untroubled soul. |
| 26 | Setareh | ستاره | A star. |
| 27 | Shirin | شیرین | Sweet; the beloved of the mason Farhad. |
| 28 | Taraneh | ترانه | A song, a melody. |
| 29 | Yasamin | یاسمین | The jasmine flower. |
| 30 | Zhaleh | ژاله | Dew on the morning leaf. |
A lot of these are just ordinary words. Bahar is the season, بهار, and Setareh is the everyday word for star. That's normal in Persian. A girl called Bahar doesn't sound poetic to Iranians any more than a girl called Rose does to English speakers.
30 Persian boy names with meanings
| # | Name | Persian | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ali | علی | Exalted, sublime, high. |
| 2 | Amir | امیر | A prince, a commander. |
| 3 | Arash | آرش | The legendary archer whose arrow set the border of Iran. |
| 4 | Ardavan | اردوان | Guardian of the upright. |
| 5 | Arman | آرمان | An ideal, a long-held aspiration. |
| 6 | Babak | بابک | Young father; the rebel who defied the caliphs. |
| 7 | Bahram | بهرام | The planet Mars; the one who breaks all resistance. |
| 8 | Bardia | بردیا | Tall and lofty; a prince of ancient Persia. |
| 9 | Bizhan | بیژن | Brave. |
| 10 | Dariush | داریوش | He who holds firmly to the good; the great king Darius. |
| 11 | Farhad | فرهاد | The lover who carved a mountain for Shirin. |
| 12 | Firuz | فیروز | Victorious. |
| 13 | Houman | هومن | Of good and noble spirit. |
| 14 | Javid | جاوید | Eternal. |
| 15 | Kamran | کامران | Successful, fortunate, prospering. |
| 16 | Kaveh | کاوه | The blacksmith who raised his apron as a banner against the tyrant. |
| 17 | Khashayar | خشایار | Brave. |
| 18 | Khosro | خسرو | A king. |
| 19 | Kian | کیان | The kings; the foundation, the realm itself. |
| 20 | Kourosh | کوروش | Like the sun; Cyrus, founder of the first empire. |
| 21 | Mani | مانی | Thought and meaning; the painter-prophet. |
| 22 | Nima | نیما | Just and fair; the father of modern Persian poetry. |
| 23 | Reza | رضا | Contentment and quiet acceptance. |
| 24 | Rostam | رستم | The greatest champion of the Shahnameh. |
| 25 | Sepehr | سپهر | The sky. |
| 26 | Shayan | شایان | Deserving. |
| 27 | Sina | سینا | Of Avicenna, Ibn Sina; also a mountain. |
| 28 | Sohrab | سهراب | Bright and shining; the son of Rostam. |
| 29 | Yashar | یاشار | May he live long (from the Azeri). |
| 30 | Zal | زال | The white-haired hero raised by the Simorgh. |
Several boy names come straight out of the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi's book of kings: Rostam, Sohrab, Zal, Bizhan. Others belong to real ancient kings, like Kourosh and Dariush. Ali, Amir and Reza come from Arabic and are some of the most common names in Iran.
Names grouped by what they mean
If you are choosing a name, it is often easier to start from the meaning. Here are the same names sorted into themes.
- Flowers and plants: Golnar (pomegranate blossom), Yasamin (jasmine), Nasrin (wild rose), Maryam (tuberose).
- Sky, light and stars: Setareh (star), Mahsa (like the moon), Sepehr (the sky), Kourosh (like the sun).
- Seasons and nature: Bahar (spring), Zhaleh (dew), Ava (a voice, a melody).
- Feelings and qualities: Arezu (hope), Raha (set free), Javid (eternal), Shayan (deserving).
- Heroes and legends: Arash, Rostam, Sohrab, Zal, Kaveh, Farhad and Shirin.
Names that work in English and Farsi
Many Iranian parents abroad want a name that needs no spelling out at school. Short names travel best. From the lists above, Ava, Sara, Mina, Kian, Arman, Nima and Sina are easy in English and fully Persian at home. Ava means "a voice, a melody" in Persian, which English speakers rarely know.
Some names change shape on the way. Kourosh is Cyrus in English. Dariush is Darius. Khosro turns up as Khosrow or Chosroes in history books.
How to say them
Three rules fix most mistakes:
- Stress the last syllable. sha-YAN, ba-HAR, shi-RIN.
- Kh is one sound, the rough sound at the back of the throat, like German "ach". Khosro and Khashayar both start with it.
- Zh is the sound in "measure", as in Zhaleh and Mozhgan.
For the full set of sounds, see my Persian pronunciation guide.
Writing a name in Persian script
Each Persian spelling in the tables is the standard one. If you want to practise writing your own name or your child's, copy it letter by letter from the table, then try typing it on our Persian typing practice page. Persian letters join, so the name should look like one connected word, not a row of separate shapes.
Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.
A teacher from Tabriz, based in Milano. 5.0 on Preply across 52 reviews, 1,652 lessons taught. He curates the growing dictionary behind this site.
