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Someone with a Persian name could be Muslim or Zoroastrian; Iranian, Kurdish, Pakistani, et al. Any further information?
Surnames were only adopted in Iran in 1929. If your background is Iranian/Persian then it's possible that there are elderly members of your family who remember the first person to adopt the name Rast(e)gar. I believe Iranians were encouraged to adopt Persian names, though many preferred to retain Islamic/Arabic names. Some translated the Arabic name into Farsi. You write that Rastegar means 'saved'; it could, therefore be a translation of the Arabic name Naji. Surnames based on male given names were usually from the name of the father of the head of the family at the time, though they might also be taken from the name of an important ancestor.

• surname "rastgar/rastegar" - azade  Oct 16 2009, 1:56:17 PM
  • Re: surname "rastgar/rastegar" - Jim Young  Oct 19 2009, 6:59:36 AM