Iranian surnames came into vogue only in the
early years of the 20th century and were driven by the government’s compulsions
Farrokh Jijina
"There was no particular pattern or trend in the adoption of family names by Zoroastrians in Iran,” according to Prof Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi, professor of international relations and history at Boston University who was delivering a lecture on "The introduction of family names (1918-1924) in Iran and its consequences” on December 18, 2015 at the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI). Some Zoroastrians, he informed those present, took on surnames based on geographical origins and some on the basis of occupations.
Prof Houchang Chehabi
The use of surnames became popular only when state registries to record births, marriages, divorces and......