Whit Rodmena means

In everyday Persian, rūd (رود) is a river. Classical Persian gies the word mair senses: the string o a lute, a sang, and a bairn. Steingass’s Persian-English dictionar lists “a son or dochter; a comely and amiable youth”, and the Persian dictionars o Dehkhoda, Moein and Amid define it as a bairn, son or dochter.^[1][2]

The same word names Rudāba (رودابه), princess o Kabul in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, the Persian epic completit aroond 1010. She mairit Zāl and becam the mither o Rostam, the epic’s greatest hero. Her name is read as rūd, “child”, and āb, “radiance”: the shinin child.^[4]

Set side by side, the twa words read as ae image: a cherished bairn under the azure heaven. That is the literal meanin o Rodmena.

As a gien name, Rudmina (رودمینا) appears in Iranian leets o lassies' names wi the meanin "princess", shāhzādeh. The leets are a popular namin tradeetion and cite nae dictionar, sae we gie that meanin as the tradeetion gies it. Its echo in leeteratur is Rudāba, the shinin bairn that was a princess o Kabul.^[4]

The Greeks caa'd the Iranians Persai. Herodotus tells hou they cam by the name: Perseus mairit Andromeda, their son wis Perses, and "it wis frae this Perses that the Persians tuik their name". He forby records that the Persians caa'd themsels Artaei.^[5]

The story is a Greek legend. The name comes frae Pārsa, the Auld Persie name o the fowk o Cyrus the Great and o their hameland in the sooth-wast, the day's province o Fārs.^[6]

Iranians hae aye cried their kintra Iran (ایران), frae the Middle Persie Ērān, biggit on the auncient name Iranians uised for themsels. In 1935 the govrenment speirt foreign govrenments tae uise “Iran” in offeecial correspondence, and in 1959 it confirmed that baith names may be uised.^[6]

Owre this site we say Iran and Iranian for the kintra and its fowk, the names they uise for thairsels, and Persian for the leid, Fārsi, and its leiterature.