What it means
نواده (navâde) means “great-grandchild,” the child of a grandchild. The word is built from نوه (nave, “grandchild”) plus the suffix ـاده, an old Persian noun-forming element that also produces شاهزاده (shâhzâde, “prince,” literally “king-born”) and آدمزاده (âdam-zâde, “human-born”). نواده is literally “the one born of the grandchild.”
How to use it
- نوادهام (navâde-am) “my great-grandchild”
- نوادهی پسری (navâde-ye pesari) “great-grandchild through son”
- نوادههای پادشاه (navâde-hâ-ye pâdshâh) “the king’s great-grandchildren”
- چهار نسل: من، فرزندم، نوهام، نوادهام (chahâr nasl: man, farzand-am, nave-am, navâde-am) “four generations: me, my child, my grandchild, my great-grandchild”
Forms
Plural نوادهها (navâde-hâ). The next generation up, “great-great-grandchild,” has no single fixed word in everyday Persian: speakers use نوادهی نواده (navâde-ye navâde, “great-grandchild’s great-grandchild”) or just clarify with نسل پنجم (nasl-e panjom, “the fifth generation”).
Cultural note
نواده is a B1+ word: lower-frequency than نوه, used mainly when an Iranian family actually has four living generations to discuss, which happens but is less common. In genealogical writing, family trees, and royal histories, نواده is standard. In the Shahnameh and in Qajar-era court records, the word marks lineage carefully: تبار (tabâr, “lineage”) and نواده together construct the long memory of who descended from whom.
An Iranian grandparent who lives to see نواده is celebrated in family gatherings. The phrase نوادهداری (navâde-dâri), “having great-grandchildren,” is shorthand for a long blessed life. In village contexts in Khorasan and Lorestan, the elder who can name their نوادهها holds informal social authority: their memory is the family’s archive.
Related kinship terms
Persian has a clean four-step set for descending generations: فرزند (farzand, “child”), نوه (nave, “grandchild”), نواده (navâde, “great-grandchild”), and نتیجه (natije, “great-great-grandchild,” though this last one is rare and contested in usage). Some Iranian families also use نبیره (nabire) interchangeably with نواده in older texts; the form نبیره is more common in classical Persian and occasionally surfaces in formal genealogies and family histories.
In the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi tracks Iranian kingship across generations using exactly these terms: a king’s نواده inheriting the throne is a structural plot point in several stories, and the word carries the weight of dynastic continuity rather than just family affection.
References
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