How the country became known as 'Iran'?
The word 'Iran' was known as “Airya’ in ancient Iran and ‘erān'in Old Persian language and is derived from ancient Airya nama' or the land of noble people. The term ‘Arya’was spelled as ‘Airya and Arya in Old Persian and Sanskrit. Meanwhile in Sanskrit *Arya’ means a lord and superior person and ‘Aryaka' means a respectable person. This term was spelled *Airyana' in Old Pahlavi, ‘Air’in Dari Persian and ‘Airya’ in Aryan language.

 ‘Airyana' or ‘Airya' means freeborn and in its collective form means the land of the freeborn.From another aspect 'Iran' means the ‘Land of Aryans'. Many centuries before the birth of Islam the country was called 'Iran' or *Iranshahr'. Of course from 6th century B.C. until 1935 the country was known as 'Persia' by the world. In that year Reza Shah Pahlavi formally requested the League of Nations or the newly established United Nations to use the word 'Iran' instead of 'Persia' on the international level. However since many European scholars and travelers had known the country as “Persia, this term is mentioned in western classic books, but Iran' is used by politicians. Meanwhile in Iranian cultural/artistic
exhibitions had been launched in Europe such as 'Seven Thousand Years of Iranian Art' or 'The Forgotten Empire' Iran is mentioned as Persia.