Family Names (فامیلی)
Selection of Family Names (گزینش نام خانوادگی)
Following the establishment of the Department of Statistics (اداره احصائیه), or the Civil Registration Office (اداره سجل احوال), at the beginning of the reign of Reza Shah (رضاشاه), people were required to choose a family name and obtain a civil registration record or identity card (سجل احوال یا شناسنامه) in order to establish their identity.
Family names were selected on the basis of several factors, including a person’s own title or that of his father; the name of a near or distant ancestor; the person’s occupation or that of his father or grandfather; affiliation with an individual, tribe, or tribal confederation; a father’s or ancestor’s recognized literary or scholarly reputation; religious sentiments; and names already recorded in the statistical register.
Family names such as Mostowfi (مستوفی), Vaziri (وزیری), Ayatollahi (آیتاللهی), Kharrat (خرّاط), Mesgarha (مسگرها), Qashqai (قشقایی), Za’faranlu (زعفرانلو), Esna Ashari (اثناعشری), Kefayi (کفایی), Hadaeq (حدایق), Dinparvar (دینپرور), Saharkhiz (سَحَرخیز), and similar names resulted from such choices.
(Mahboubi, Vol. 2, pp. 161–162; E’temad al-Saltaneh, Mera’at, Vol. 2, p. 270; Vol. 3, pp. 5, 33; Fasa’i, Vol. 2, p. 236; Mostowfi, Vol. 3, p. 497; Kasravi, Vol. 1, p. 77; Vol. 2, p. 78; Vol. 3, p. 437.)
