Iran was known as Persian until 1935. “Iran” is the Persian word for the country, “Persia” comes to us via Greek. For some further context: “Persian” is the pr

Iran was known as Persian until 1935. “Iran” is the Persian word for the country, “Persia” comes to us via Greek. For some further context: “Persian” is the preferred term in English for the language spoken by most of the people of Iran. “Farsi” is the name of that language in that language. There is a language institute that manages formal rules (like French) and they prefer to keep the long association in western sources with the name “Persia” over a more native name — “farsi” is the Arabized form of the older “parsi”. This change is due to Arabic not having a p sound.