This is a list of geographic names of Iranian origin. This list also includes geographic names which are in part derived from Iranian languages.

Africa

Somalia

Mogadishu Bandar Beyla Bandar Qaasim

Tanzania Zanzibar

Tunisia KairouanThe name ( Al-Qairuwân) is an Arabic deformation of the Persian word kârvân, meaning "military/civilian camp"."قيروان" . Dehkhoda Dictionary.«رابطه دو سویه زبان فارسی–عربی». ماهنامه کیهان فرهنگی. دی 1383، شماره 219. صص 73–77.

Central Asia Amudarya Syrdarya Khwarezm Pamir Mountains Turkistan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan, literally meaning "land of the Turks" in Persian.

Afghanistan Afghanistan

Formed with the Old Persian suffix -stan, cognate with sthāna from Sanskrit, meaning 'land', it literally means "Land of Afghans".

Cities Herat Jalalabad Mazar-i Sharif

Kazakhstan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan, literally meaning "land of the Kazakh or Ghazagh" in Persian.

Cities Astana Shymkent Taraz Lenger Shardara

Kyrgyzstan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan.

Cities Jalal-Abad Osh Batken Isfana Uzgen Aravan Khaidarkan Kadamjay Nooken District

Tajikistan Tajikistan Tajik combined with Persian suffix -stan."stan", originally Sanskrit 'sthan' meaning 'land'. OED Literally meaning "Land of Tajiks" in Persian.

Cities and regions

Dushanbe The name is derived from the Persian word for "Monday" (du two + shamba or shanbe day, lit. "day two") and refers to the fact that it was a popular Monday marketplace. Garm The name is derived from the Gharmi people, and Iranian people. Kofarnihon The name comes from the Persian کافر نهان, literally meaning "place where unbelievers hide". Murghab Derived from the Persian word مرغاب meaning "river of the birds". Panjakent Persian پنج‌کند which means Five Cities. Its older name was Panj-deh (Five Villages). Kent or Kand is Iranian city or fortress. like Samarkand and Tashkand. Qurghonteppa Derived from the Persian word گرگان تپه meaning "Hills of Gurgan".

Turkmenistan Ashgabat The name is believed to derive from the Persian Ashk-ābād meaning "the City of Arsaces." Another explanation is that the name comes from the Arabic عشق (ishq, meaning "love") and the Persian آباد (ābād meaning "cultivated place" or "city"), and hence loosely translates as "the city of love."

Cities Abadan Chardzhou Mary Merv Türkmenabat

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Uzbek combined with Persian suffix -stan, originally from Sanskrit 'sthan' meaning 'land'. Literally meaning "Land of Uzbeks" in Persian.

Cities and regions

Afrasiab Derived from the Persian afrāsiyāb (Persian: افراسياب; Avestan: Fraŋrasyan; Pahlavi: Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk and Freangrāsyāk), the name of the mythical King and hero of Turan and an archenemy of Iran. Bukhara Encyclopædia Iranica mentions that the name Bukhara is possibly derived from the Soghdian βuxārak.Encyclopædia Iranica, Columbia University, p.512 Another possible source of the name Bukhara may be from "a Turkic (Uighur) transfer of the Sanskrit word 'Vihara'"Shamsiddin Kamoliddin, 'On the origin of the place-name Buxārā', Transoxiana 12 (August 2007). (monastery), and may be linked to the pre-Islamic presence of Buddhism (especially strong at the time of the Kushan empire) originating from the Indian sub-continent, and to the presence of some Turkish rulers in the 6th Century. Dehkanabad Formed with Persian suffix -abad. Guliston Formed with the Persian suffix -istan. Jizzakh The name "Jizzahk", derives from the Sogdian word for "small fort" and the present city is built of the site of the Sogdian town of Usrushana. Karakalpakstan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan. Namangan and Namangan Province Derived from the local salt mines (in Persian: نمک‌کان namak kan). Panjakent In Sogdian, the native local Iranian language in pre-Islamic times, kanθ means town, which is derived from Old Persian kanda, meaning a town or a region. In this case, Khanda has been manipulated into "kent". Samarkand The name Samarkand is derived from Persian meaning "Stone Town".:ca:Maracanda In Greek it was known as Marakanda. In Sogdian, the native local Iranian language in pre-Islamic times, kanθ means town, which is derived from Old Persian kanda, meaning a town or a region. Shahrisabz Its name (شهر سبز/Šahr e Sabz) means "green city" in Persian. Surxondaryo Tashkent In medieval times the town and the province were known as "Chach". Later, the town came to be known as Chachkand/Chashkand, meaning "Chach City." (Kand, qand, kent, kad, kath, kud—all meaning a city, are derived from the Old Iranian, kanda, meaning a town or a city. Xorazm Yarkand In Sogdian, the native local Iranian language in pre-Islamic times, kanθ means town, which is derived from Old Persian kanda, meaning a town or a region. Zeravshan From the Persian word زر افشان, meaning "the sprayer of Gold".

Geographical features Zeravshan mountains From the Persian word زر افشان, meaning "the sprayer of Gold".

East Asia China The English name of China comes from the Qin dynasty, possibly in a Sanskrit form; the pronunciation "China" came to the western languages through the Persian word چین "Chin". Korea (both north and south)

After the Goryeo dynasty, the first Korean dynasty visited by Persian merchants who referred to Koryŏ (Goryeo) as Korea.

Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan

Indonesia Banda Aceh The first part of its name comes from the Persian bandar (بندر) and means "port" or "haven". It is also proudly referred to as the "port to Meccah", as Islam first arrived in Aceh and spread throughout Southeast Asia. Bandar Lampung Bandar (in Persian بندر) is a Persian word meaning "port" and "haven". Etymologically it combines Persian بند Band (enclosed) and در dar (gate, door) meaning "an enclosed area" (i.e. protected from the sea). The word travelled with Persian sailors over a wide area leading to several coastal places in Iran and elsewhere having Bandar (haven) as part of their names.

Malaysia Bandar Sri Damansara Bandar Seri Putra Bandar Baru Bangi Bandar Samariang

Southern Asia Bangladesh Bandar Upazila Bandar Thana

India India

The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hind. This is the name of the Indus River in Old Persian. The word Hindu also originates from the Old Persian, meaning people who live beyond the Indus River, and it originally referred to the people, not the religion."India", Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 2100a.d. Oxford University Press Furthermore, the name "Hindustan", a name for historical India, is Persian derived. Punjab

Pakistan Pakistan Formed from the Persian meaning "Land of the Pure"; "Pāk-" meaning "pure" and the Persian suffix "-istān" meaning "land" Punjab formed from Persian meaning "land of the five streams"; "Panj-" meaning "five" and "-āb" meaning "waters"

Cities Keti Bandar town in Pakistan formed by Persian word "Bandar" Shamal Bandar town in Pakistan formed by Persian word "Bandar" Islamabad capital of Pakistan formed by Persian word "-abad" meaning "city of Islam" Peshawar city in Pakistan formed from Old Persian "Pārāshavār" meaning "forward city" Multan city in Pakistan formed from Old Persian "mulastāna" meaning "frontier land" Ziarat town in Pakistan formed by Persian word "Ziarat" meaning "pilgrimage" Hyderabad city in Pakistan formed from Persian meaning "Lion city" referring to Ali Muzaffarabad city in Pakistan formed by Persian words meaning "city of the Victorious" Bagh town in Pakistan formed by the Persian word meaning "garden" Mardan city in Pakistan derived from Persian meaning "city of Men" Khuzdar town in Pakistan derived from Persian

Various cities and towns of South Asia ending in the Persian suffix -ābād ().

Europe Caucasus Danube River Comes from the ancient Danuvius, Iranian *dānu, meaning "river" or "stream". Dnieper Sarmatian *danu apara "river to the rear" Dniester Sarmatian *danu nazdya "river to the front. Don River (Russia) Donetsk Dnipro Mount Elbrus a metathesis of Alborz Tiraspol from an ancient name of the river, Tyras, derived from Scythian *tūra

Russia Bashkortostan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan. Dagestan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan. Tatarstan Formed with the Persian suffix -istan, literally meaning "Land of the Tartars" in Persian. Mordovia The name Mordva is thought to originate from an Iranian (Scythian) word, mard, meaning "man". The Mordvin word mirde denoting a husband or spouse is traced to the same origin . This word is also probably related to the final syllable of "Udmurt", and also in and perhaps even in . Udmurtia The name Udmurt comes from ('meadow people'), where the first part represents the Permic root or ('meadow, glade, turf, greenery'). This is supported by a document dated 1557, in which the Udmurts are referred to as ('meadow people'), alongside the traditional Russian name .A.G. Ivanov, "Udmurty – 'Lugovye lyudi'", Linguistica Uralica Vol. 27, No. 3 (1991), pp. 188–92.

The second part means 'person' (cf. Komi , Mari ). It is probably an early borrowing from a Scythian language: or ('person, man'; Sanskrit: Manus or Manushya), which is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term ('man, mortal, one who is bound to die'. cf. Old Indic ('young warrior') and ('chariot warrior'), both connected specifically with horses and chariots.Christopher I. Beckwith. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2009. Page 397. The Indo-Europeanists T. Gamkrelidze and V. Ivanov associate this word with horse-riding Altaic tribes in the Bronze Age.R. Matasović (2009): Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p. 257.T. Gamkrelidze & V. Ivanov (1995): Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans, p. 472-473.

Cities Derbent The name is a Persian word (دربند Darband) meaning "barred gate", which came into use in the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century AD, when the city was refounded by Kavadh I of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia. Turan (town) Samara Named after the Samara River, which probably means "summer water" (signifying that it froze in winter) in the Indo-Iranian language which was spoken there around the third millennium BC. The Samara city gives its name to the Samara culture, a Neolithic culture of the fifth millennium BC, and the Kurgan hypothesis associates the region with the original homeland (urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European language.Balter, Michael (13 February 2015). "Mysterious Indo-European homeland may have been in the steppes of Ukraine and Russia". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aaa7858. Retrieved 17 February 2015.

Bulgaria Razgrad Province Pazardzhik ProvincePersian bāzār, "market" + the Turkic diminutive suffix -cık, "small". Varna possible Iranian etymology: var ("camp", "fortress")

Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo from Persian sarāy, "house, palace"

Romania Iași from the name of the Sarmatian tribe of Iazyges

Hungary Jászság, Jászberény (after the Jasz people from Sarmatia)

Serbia Novi Pazar Persian (bāzār) 'market'

North Macedonia Saraj, Skopje Persian (sarāy) 'house'

Croatia Croatia The name is most probably from Proto-Ossetian / Alanian *xurvæt- or *xurvāt-, in the meaning of "one who guards" ("guardian, protector").

Caucasus Arran Caucasus Kura River The name Kura is taken from the name Kurosh which is the Persian pronunciation of the name of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.

Armenia Armenia