Persia
Feminine · “Greek Persis”
Iran asked the world to stop saying Persia in 1935 and the world agreed. The government sent a note to foreign missions requesting that the country be called by the name its own people used, and within a year the change was general. It is one of very few cases of a country successfully changing what everyone else calls it by simply asking.
How old is the name Persia?
Persia first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Persia alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Persia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Persia most popular?
Persia peaked in 2007, reaching #2541 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,319 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Where it comes from
From Parsa to Persia
The story of Persia
Exonyms, the names outsiders use for a place, are usually impossible to change, and the list of failures is long. Persia is the exception. The 1935 request was made partly on national grounds and partly because Persia named only one province of a much larger country; the change was made and stuck. It was not entirely welcomed even in Iran, since Persia carried associations of poetry, carpets and antiquity that Iran did not, and in 1959 the government announced both names were acceptable. The word Persian survives in English for the language, the cat, the carpet and the historical empire, which is why an English speaker can talk about Persian literature and Iranian politics in the same sentence without contradiction. Fars, the province the whole thing is named for, is still there.
Meaning
Greek Persis, the region of Pars
From Greek Persis, from Old Persian Parsa, the region in the south-west of the Iranian plateau, modern Fars, from which the Achaemenid dynasty came. Greek and then Latin applied the name of the province to the whole empire. The country's own name for itself has been Iran, from Old Persian aryanam, land of the Aryans, since antiquity. It peaks as an American given name in 2007.
How the name formed
- Parsa
- Persis
- Persia
Related forms: Persis · Pars
Pronouncing Persia
PUR-zhah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some speakers say PUR-shah with an unvoiced consonant. Persis, the Greek form, appears in the New Testament as a woman's name and is said PUR-sis.
Nicknames for Persia
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 200773 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2541reached in 2007
- Change vs 2023
- +57.1%11 in 2025, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Persia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Persis in Greek — related form
- Pars in Persian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Persias among us
people named Persia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Persia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Anneke test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Persia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anneke climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anneke's path sketches the road Persia is walking now.
Persia sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Persia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Persia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The word is familiar and carries substantial historical weight.
- Persis is available as an older and biblical variant.
- It is short and easy to say.
- It is a place name and a former country name.
- The country it named asked to be called something else in 1935.
- It is unusual enough to invite questions.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Persia
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Persias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Persia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Persia in 2025?
- Persia ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Persia?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Persia — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Persia with classmates?
- Persia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Persia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Persia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Persia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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