Choosing beautiful names for children is a very important task for any parent, said Mohsen Esmaeili, director general of the National Organization for Civil Registration’s (NOCR) Department for Identification Documents. “But in Iran there is greater variety in girls’ names than for boys,” he said.
In all, there are 20 standard names for boys and girls, including those based on religious figures, flowers, national names, divine attributes, planets and celestial bodies, manifestations of nature, animals, places, birds, gemstones, mythical creatures and ancient names, IRNA reported.
For naming girls, 18 templates are used and for boys 14. “This explains why girls’ names are more varied.”
Islamic Names
Studies show there are more than 5,192 names for girls in the country, while the number is 4,364 for boys. Islamic names are more common among boys than among girls.
Amir Ali and Fatemeh were the most popular names and 28,057 boys and 37,927 girls respectively were so named, the study showed.
Ali (PBUH) is the first Shia Imam and Fatemeh (PBUH) is the daughter of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Esmaeili said naming committees, affiliated to NOCR, are active in all provinces, and called on parents who want to select special names for their children to refer to the committees.
