re: #650 Cato the Elder

Is that the reason they adopted “Iran” and “Iranian” in 1935?

Wikipedia article on the naming dispute between “Persia” and “Iran” here.

I think it comes down to a classical European view as to what qualifies as a nation or a people, which for a long time was based on language groups. The people of Iran speak Farsi. The latinized term comes out as Persian for people that speak Farsi.

The Iranians are apparently sticklers for everyone using their chosen name, while in reality most places and countries don’t have a single name across all languages. The abbreviation for US in Spanish is actually EU, which causes me no end of confusion as one example. I don’t see a lot of Americans getting bent out of shape and demanding that the Spanish speaking work start referring to us in English words though.