Name your son Sargon. A history teacher of mine in highschool told the class to bring the name back. Later I would actually marry someone who was in the same class. She thinks I’m kidding when I claim I’m going to do it.
All boy’s names should have to pass the patented Middlecase “Skywalker” test: to wit, how would this sound if I prefixed it to Skywalker? Mark Skywalker? Fine. Xerxes Skywalker? No. Matthew Skywalker? Fine. Drano {OK, Ajax} Skywalker? Whack! Robert Skywalker? Could be worse. Dymaz Skywalker? Biff!
Trust me, I know whereof I speak: my wife is Japanese, and when our son was born, we wanted to find a name that was a/ sane, b/well-known, c/not too common, d/dignified, and e/pronounceable in Japanese. We called him Joseph. {Josefu, in Katakana} Joseph Skywalker. Has a nice ring to it.
Not sure how the Skywalker test applies to girl’s names: try the patented Middlecase “Evenstar” test.
PS A neighbouring couple are Iranian/Kiwi {he Iranian, she Kiwi}, and they called their daughter Farah. Sounds nice.
Actually, when we were considering names for our baby*, we canvassed a number of nice Biblical names.
For a girl, there was OHolyBummer or HasALi’lPony .
For a boy, Mahashelalhashbaz, or, my personal favourite
Evil Merodach
I think I want to call my next cat Merodach…
- aka “Rachel”
Darius is Persian for King.
Oddly, I have suggested Lucas, to tepid reception. 
There are actually a lot of names that we’ve tossed back and forth with no particular reaction either way. The ones that ended up on the original list are the ones that keep coming up because one of us likes it (and the other, naturally, hates it).
No, go on - tell us what you really think :D.
I happen to quite like the name (tho’ as someone else pointed out, probably better as a middle name than a first - my initials are NER and I used to think it’d be cool to change it to NXR; as I got older I lost interest in that and now confine myself to using it on message boards, upon which (at least in this case) I find it’s a deeply unpopular name).
Oh well. I’ll suspect I’ll get over it.
And the spelling! My god, the spelling!
My advice to you is to start teaching the kid martial arts as soon as he can walk.
Seriously, having to deal with funny spellings or unusual names all his life? Do you want him to spend his life telling people it’s Z-A-K-A-R-Y? Believe me I know. I never got beaten up for it, but I’ve been spelling (and enunciating) my last name for people all my life, and it gets tiring. Whenever a business or government office needs my name, and the contact is in person or by phone, I have to say, “Let’s use my social instead,” because it’s such a difficult name.
I’m partial to Sally for a girl (after my first best friend).
Boys names are a bit tougher. Something with Atticus as a middle name is good.
I see from earlier posts that the OP wants a name meaningful to Persians. That puts a different spin on things. Culturally appropriate, unusual names may be fine in that case, and I don’t think the kid’ll get taunted for the name if he is, in fact Persian. But I’d still avoid Xerxes, and also names that are just like traditional English names except for the spelling. If you want a Biblical name, I’d suggest going with the traditional spelling used in English translations.
However, even that can backfire. I’m Jonathan. You look up Saul’s son and David’s best friend (a point not lost in my childhood when my best friend was indeed named David) in whatever book of Samuel, and that’s how it’s spelled. It’s not Johnathan or Jonathon or Johnathon (all three of which teachers used, even with several attempts to correct them.) I still have people defaulting to Johnathan when they write my name and often John as the short form. However, I blame the John bit on the fact that I’m now more likely to identify myself as Jon when introducing myself to people (friendlier and all, without sounding really nicknamey.) As for why Johnathan, I have no idea. What’s really amusing is when I tell someone, in an attempt to correct it, that there’s only one “h” and they write down Johnatan instead. :dubious:
Hey, I come out 65% Classic Conservative, 20% Classic Unusual, and 15% Modern Conservative. This is either a really good sign or a really bad sign for any potential offspring. Ladies, if you’re looking for a good guy who won’t want to name the kiddos weirdly and can do domestic chores, I’m available.
Along the lines of correct spellings that get slaughtered, Mom’s name is Yvonne. You would not believe how often she gets mail, especially junk mail, that is either Evon or Evonne or some other misspelling. (To make it worse, she married a guy with a last name that is a somewhat common, though old, female first name. So she often gets junk mail addressed to Last-Name-as-First-Name Yvonne. How that makes any more sense than her real name, I have no idea. Have you EVER heard of someone with the last name Yvonne?)
Anyway, Mom got a French-origin name. Dad’s is German. Mine’s Hebrew. My brother’s is Greek.
As a general rule, I’d say to go with something more traditional, with the most common spelling. Preferably with something that isn’t too popular at the moment, though there’s only so much you can do along those lines. Go with the long form if you have a choice, as it gives both the kid a choice on whether or not to use a nickname for casual use while giving a more professional and dignified name for business and other use, unless the long form is too archaic. For example, I would go with Samuel over Sam, but Nathan over Nathaniel. Elizabeth over Liz or Eliza or Beth, though Lisa isn’t bad by itself. And I agree with other posters that there is, for whatever reason, more flexibility in that bit of guideline for girls than there are for boys.
Oooh - Rana or Zari. Those are nice, especially considering your ethnicity.
About common names - I’m an Amy, and while I grew up with a ton of Amys in my classes, right now I only know one other Amy. I’m the only Amy in my office, recently I was the only Amy in a class when I returned to school, I was the only Amy at my last job - once you grow up, it’s not as common as you might think.
Since most people spend the majority of their lives as adults, please consider this when naming your child.
Sure, little Josher or Xerxes may be cute and original and creative when they’re in kindergarten but do they really want this when they grow up?
“Bob, Jim, Joe, can you please come into my office? I’d like you to meet our newest board member. This is Jasher.”
“Okay team, we have to decide who to promote to Senior Business Analyst. Our candidates are Michael Jones, Thomas Smith, Xerxes Brown, Jonathan Moore, or Ajax Fisher.”
OK, taking relevance to Iranian culture into account:
For a boy, Tamyz sounds to me like it could be phonetically truncated to “Tommy” or “Tom” for casual use.
I have known several folks of Iranian descent. Some used Angicized nicknames some didn’t. Mohammed went by “Moe” casually. Omid just went by his given name (I think his mom was Farah), as did Sapan (boy). There was an Iranian family on my block when I was in school, and their oldest son was indeed named Xerxes – and he went by that name with no ill effects, letting everyone pronounce it “zerk-siss”. Lastly, Lili had an easy time of it, as her name has a close English analog.
In sum – it seems possible to come up with Farsi names (especially for boys) that are reducible to English-sounding nicknames. Even going with faux initials is an option. One of my friends, from India, has a short, simple Marathi name that starts with the letters “AJ”. Because people blow his name so often, he just took to going by the initials “A.J.”
Hey Snickers, guess what MY name is? 
[QUOTE=Cinnamon Girl]
Girls:
Ava - voice (as in Ava Gardner, perhaps)
Leila - nocturnal (nice choice)
Lila - lilac (similar to Leila)
Lili - the flower (though it will be misspelled)
Mariam - tuberose (not very different thank miriam but just)
Mina - lapis lazuli (I had a female cat named Mina. No idea where I got it.)
Roxana - light (I think you could get away with alternative spelling here since you’re only deleting duplicated characters not adding them)
Sara - pure (again perfectly acceptable in Western society)
Tara - star (even better, but will remind people of Gone with the Wind, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This was my first choice when my firstborn came, but alas, she was a he.)
Boys (harder):
Arman - inspiration (kind of like Armand. As in Assante. Mmmmmm… I got your inspiration right here, baby.)
Pasha - lord (I like this one amazingly. Easy to spell/pronounce. Different.)
Reza - will (kinda sounds like it could work for either gender.)
Sam - character in Shahnameh (I’d definitely go with Sam even though it breaks one of my rules.)
[QUOTE]
With girls, the options seem a lot simpler to work with.
The boys names can still work with some creativity. Pasha Jasher and Reza Jasher, for example, could go by “P.J.” and “R.J.” Sam (or any Persian male name starting with “Sam-” is self-explanatory.
Arman is actually a very good option. It sounds like a few different English names (both surnames and given names) such as Armand and Harmon, so it doesn’t jar phonetically. There’s also CBS sportscaster Arman Keteyian putting the name “Arman” out there in the public conciousness of sports fans.
I’ve been partial to Atticus ever since I read TKAM.
That or Dickelberryfin.
Some Persian baby names
Okay, I went to Cinammon Girl’s link, and tried to find some male Persian names that can either suggest English nicknames, or would not be necessarily likely to throw people off so much. Here’s what I came up with:
Ahmad - familar because of former NFL player and current TV personality Ahmad Rashad.
**Ali ** - phonetically simple, familiar due to Muhammad Ali.
Ardavan - could go by “Dave” or “Van”.
Babak - could be “Bobby”.
Bahram/Behrang - “Barry”.
Behnam - “Ben” for short.
Cyrus/Kourosh - could go by “Cy”.
Dariush - “Darius” is fine as a first name, IMHO.
Davood = “David”
Farhad - I knew a guy in high school with this name. He was a popular basketball player, so I don’t guess the name hurt him any socially (I didn’t know his name was Farsi).
**Jahandar/Jahangir/other “Ja” names ** – could go by “Joe”, “Jake”, or “Jack”.
**Kamdin/Kambiz/other “Kam” names ** – could go by “Cam”.
Kayvan – close to “Kevin”.
Mani/Mansoor – could go by “Manny”.
Mohammed/other “Mo” names – could go by “Moe”.
Pejman/Peyman --“Pete”?
Shapour – could go by “Shep”.
Tahmouress/Tahmaseb – “Tom”, “Tommy”?
Yaghoub = Jacob
Yahya = John, Johmny
Yousef = Joseph, Joe
Oh my. Zakary with a CH could be okay. Milo I actually kind of like.
Ajax - it’s a cleaning product. For toilets.
Tymaz - “Ty-maz, tie my shoes, Ty-maz, she’s a snooze” (wimpy sing-songy voice)
Darya - not bad but people are going to pronounce it “Dar-ya (puzzled voice),” not “Dare-ee-a” if you spell it like that
Keira - I like this one too. I have no idea who Keira Knightly is, though.
Erlyn - did you make this up? Sounds like something from Lord of the Rings.
Xerxes - for the love of god, don’t saddle your child with this.
hee!