Title: Name of Iran
Content: the name "Iran" instead of "Persia" for all purposes. In the British House of Commons the move was reported upon by the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs as follows: The decree of Reza Shah Pahlavi affecting nomenclature duly took effect on 21 March 1935. To avoid confusion between the two neighboring countries Iran and Iraq, which were both involved in WWII and occupied by the Allies, Winston Churchill requested from the Iranian government during the Teheran Conference for the old and distinct name "Persia to be used by the United Nations [i.e., the Allies] for the duration

Title: Iran (word)
Content: this very day, the king of Persia is call'd "Padsha Iran" ["padshah"='king'], and the great vizier, "Iran Medary" [i.e. "medari"='facilitator'], the Pole of Persia"". Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the official name of the country is "Islamic Republic of Iran". Iran (word) The modern Persian name of Iran () derives immediately from 3rd-century Sassanian Middle Persian (Pahlavi spelling: "ʼyrʼn"), where it initially meant "of the Iranians", but soon also acquired a geographical connotation in the sense of "(lands inhabited by) Iranians". In both geographic and demonymic senses, "ērān" is distinguished from its antonymic "anērān", meaning "non-Iran(ian)". In the geographic

Title: Iran (word)
Content: of kings of Iran, the lord of the Persians”. This title, as well as the title of ""Šāh-e Irān"", was later used by Nader Shah Afshar and Qajar and Pahlavi kings. Since 1935, the name "Iran" has replaced other names of Iran in the western world. Jean Chardin, who travelled in the region between 1673 and 1677, observed that "the Persians, in naming their country, make use of one word, which they indifferently pronounce "Iroun", and "Iran". [...] These names of Iran and Touran, are frequently to be met with in the ancient histories of Persia; [...] and even to

Title: Name of Iran
Content: "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably. However the issue is still debated today. The name "Irān" is first attested in the Avesta as "airyānąm" (the text of which is composed in Avestan, an old Iranian language spoken in northeastern Greater Iran, or in what are now Turkmenistan and Tajikistan). The Modern Persian word "Īrān" () derives immediately from Middle Persian "Ērān" (Pahlavi spelling: "ʼyrʼn"), first attested in an inscription that accompanies the investiture relief of the first Sassanid king Ardashir I at Naqsh-e Rustam. In this inscription, the king's Middle Persian appellation is "ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān" while

Title: Name of Iran
Content: later parts of the Bible, where this kingdom is frequently mentioned (Books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah), it is called ' (), or sometimes ' (), i.e. "Persia and Media". The Arabs used to likewise refer to Iran and the Persian (Sassanian) Empire as "" (), i.e. "Lands of Persia", which would become the popular name for the region in Muslim literature. The exonym "Persia" was the official name of Iran in the Western world before March 1935, but the Iranian people inside their country since the time of Zoroaster (probably circa 1000 BC), or even before, have called

Question: What was the former name of Iran?
Answer: Persia