Editing Tehran (section)

== Etymology ==
Various theories on the origin of the name Tehran have been put forward.

Iranian linguist [[Ahmad Kasravi]], in an article "Shemiran-Tehran", suggested that Tehran and Kehran mean "the warm place", and "Shemiran" means "the cool place". He listed cities with the same base and suffix and studied the components of the word in ancient [[Iranian languages]], and came to the conclusion that Tehran and Kehran meant the same thing in different Iranian language families, as the constant "t" and "k" are close to each other in such languages. He also provided evidence that cities named "Shemiran" were colder than those named "Tehran" or "Kehran". He considered other theories not considering the ancient history of Iranian languages such as "Tirgan" theory and "Tahran" theory [[folk etymology]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yahya |first=Zoka |title=Karvand of Kasravi |publisher=Franklin |year=1978 |location=Tehran |pages=273–283 }}</ref>

Another theory is that "Tehran" derives from Tiran/Tirgan, "the abode of [[Tir (god)|Tir]]", the [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] equivalent of [[Hermes]]. The ancient [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] town of Tiran had a neighbour, [[Mehran (district)|Mehran]] ("abode of Mehr/Mithra", the Zoroastrian sun/justice angel). Both of these were mere villages in the suburbs of the great city of Ray/Rhages. Mehran still exists as a residential district in Greater Tehran, as well as Ray, which forms the southern suburbs of Tehran. {{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The official City of Tehran website says that "Tehran" comes from the Persian words "Tah" meaning "end", or "bottom", and "Ran" meaning "[mountain] slope"—literally, the bottom of the mountain (ته کوه), referring to Tehran's position at the foot of the [[Alborz]] mountains.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Behrooz, Samira |author2=Karampour, Katayoun |url=http://universityandheritage.net/SIFU/XII_Hanoi_2009/en/abstracts/html/14.html |title=A Research on Adaptation of Historic Urban Landscapes |date=15 November 2008 |access-date=18 June 2009 |archive-date=24 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724115732/http://universityandheritage.net/SIFU/XII_Hanoi_2009/en/abstracts/html/14.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Spelling===
In English, it is also spelt "'''Teheran'''",<ref>{{cite web |title=Tehran: national capital, Iran |website=Britannica.com |date=25 November 2023 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Tehran |access-date=25 November 2023 |archive-date=13 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813145643/https://www.britannica.com/place/Tehran |url-status=live }}</ref> with both variants being used in books since at least 1800, and "Teheran" being the dominant form from after WWII until shortly before the Islamic Revolution.<ref>John Allen Gay for [[The National Interest]], 27 May 2014. [https://nationalinterest.org/feature/when-did-peking-become-beijing-persia-become-iran-we-have-10525 "When Did Peking Become Beijing and Persia Become Iran? We Have the Data"], with the [[Google Books]] [[Ngram Viewer]] graph [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Tehran%2CTeheran&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CTehran%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CTeheran%3B%2Cc0 here]. Accessed 12 December 2023.</ref>