Persian3 syllablesShahnameh
Meaning: he of the black stallion.
Siavash
| Origin | Persian — a prince of the Shahnameh, from Avestan Syavarshan |
|---|---|
| Meaning | He of the black stallion, from syava (black, dark) + arshan (stallion, male) |
| Pronunciation | see-ah-VASH (three syllables, stress at the end) |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100. A familiar name in Iran and Tajikistan; the three-syllable shape keeps it rare in English-speaking countries |
| Variants | Siyavash, Siavosh, Siyavush, Siyovush (Tajik) |
| Nicknames | Siya is heard informally in Iran; abroad the name is usually kept whole |
| Plant name | The maidenhair fern is par-e siavashan in Persian, Siavash's plume, for the plant said to have sprung where his blood fell |
History & meaning
The etymology is unusually clean for a name this old. Avestan Syavarshan is syava, black or dark, plus arshan, stallion: the man with the black horse. Ferdowsi's Siavash is the son of Kay Kavus and the most upright person in the poem, which in the Shahnameh is not a survival trait. His stepmother Sudabeh tries to seduce him, is refused, and accuses him of forcing her. He offers to settle it by ordeal, rides his black horse into a mountain of burning wood, and comes out the other side with his clothes unmarked.
Cleared and still unwelcome at home, he negotiates a truce with the Turanian king Afrasiab, refuses his father's order to break it, and goes into exile rather than perjure himself. In Turan he marries Farangis and builds a city. Then Afrasiab's brother Garsivaz poisons the king's mind against him and Siavash is beheaded over a basin so his blood will not touch the ground. It does anyway, and where it falls a plant grows: Persian still calls the maidenhair fern par-e siavashan. His son Kay Khosrow eventually takes the revenge that drives the rest of the epic. The mourning of Siavash is older and wider than Ferdowsi's version. Narshakhi's tenth-century History of Bukhara reports that the people there had sung laments for him for generations, and the Sogdian wall paintings at Panjikent show a funeral scene that scholars have long read as his.
Why parents choose it
Three syllables with the stress at the end give it a formality that shorter Persian names do not have. Parents who know the story are choosing a name that stands for keeping your word at cost, which is an unusual thing for a name to mean. Outside Iran it is a commitment: expect to spell it, and to pick one romanisation and stay with it.
Middle names for Siavash
A short middle keeps the whole thing from sprawling: Siavash Kai, Siavash John, Siavash Ali, Siavash Roy. See the middle names guide for balancing a long first name.
Famous Siavashes
Siavash Kasrai (1927 to 1996) was one of the leading Persian poets of his generation, and his 1959 Arash the Archer is among the best-known modern poems in the language. Siavash Ghomeyshi, the singer and songwriter, has been a fixture of Iranian popular music at home and in the diaspora since the 1970s.
Consider instead
Sohrab is the epic's other doomed young man, and shorter. Soroush keeps the three-syllable shape with a lighter meaning. Bijan comes from the same Turanian stretch of the poem and ends happily.