In 1935, the Iranian government asked the world to recognize Iran but its native name, “Iran” and not by its Greek name, “Persia.”

Iran is the historic name of the land between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea encompassing numerous ethnic and religious communities ranging from Persians (Parsi/Farsi), Kurds, Azaris, Turkmen, Arabs, Lurs, Baluchis, Armenians, and many others.

As a community in diaspora, a handful of Iranians have chosen to call themselves “Persian” for a number reasons:

1) Many Iranians erroneously believe that “Persian” is a nationality that can be used interchangeable with “Iranian.” This is false since “Persia” was never the native name of Iran, but one imposed by Western countries dating back to Alexander;
2) or because they fear for whatever reason to be associated with Iran and think Persian is more “exotic” or has a more positive association;
3) Some are ashamed of being associated with Iran and try to over-emphasize their ethnic identity, even though some do so not knowing whether there are actually ethnically Persian;
4) Some say they are “Persian” so as to not confuse people with being Iraqi since many mix up Iran with Iraq.

Either way, Iran is a country with thousands of years of history and we should not try to placate others by adopting the Greek name given to our homeland. We are Iranian and we owe it to our distinct history to represent our nationality and dispel any misgivings anyone may have about the name. In other words, we are Iranian and we say so employing our own standards, not ones imposed on us by others.

I HAVE ALWAYS SAID THAT I AM PERSIAN. AND IT HASENT BEEN BECAUSE OF THE REASONS YOU GAVE.

Iranian is like saying American

Persian is a Caucasion Ethnicity

Persians make up half - minority of country

The truth hurts....

I forgot... Parsa is Iranian Persia is Greek...

I'm persian

im also from iran so i could be persian-iranian

i dont like saying iranian because i dont live there anymore. now im actually persian-canadian and i was born in iran.

persian ofcourseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

We had this discussion already, like 2 months ago..

Persian is an ethnicity, Iranian is a nationality. Those who call their country Persia are morons, we're not Greeks and have never called our country Persia.

Ama you're right, most Iranians in America never say they are Iranian because they're ashamed of Iran and those excuses above are all b.s.; just admit that you don't have the balls to call yourself an Iranian and be proud of it.

actualy

iran was called persia till 1935 when reza shah changed the name to iran

to support the natzi party :)

thats right...iran was called persia up till 1935,but by other countries...iranians always called it iran...not persia...

Vow why do u guys keep arguing about a name. Iran, persia, whatever, it is the same thing just name we associate ourselves with. but i gotta say that some people do feel ashamed for some reason to go by iranian, but not mee. i just use both.

when some one ask me were u from i say im persian thats it

I agree with Asmankaz

when someone asks you where you are from you are to say Iran and if they ask about your ethnicity you are to say persian. and Iranian is referred to as nationality not ethnicity

The thing I know is that Iran's name was Persia till one of the shah change it to Iran the name Persia or Persian are really old but the name Iran is not that old and they change it to Iran just like IDK maybe 50-60years ago (im not sure) but I know its not that old and they changed the name Persia to Iran! And I know that we are 100% Persian at least I am! haha if u really know about Iran(Persia)history! But since we were born the name was Iran so we use to say Iran all the time! but when anybody asks me where am I from I say im Persian if they don’t get it i say im Persian im from Iran and if they’re too dump that they don’t get it I’ll say im Persian im from Iran, u know Persia....lol

Only people from esfahan, shiraz and some other neighbouring provinces are "parsians"/Persians. The rest are "Parthians", or "Medians.