My full name is 'Sayyed Arash Ostadzadeh', 'سيد آرش استادزاده' as written in Persian, however 'Sayyed' (سيد) is just a honorific often given to males acknowledged as descendants of the Islamic prophet 'Mohammad'. The closest English equivalent to this title would be 'Sir' or 'Lord'. In Persian, the title 'Mir' (مير) particularly serves as the same purpose. There are also other transliterations regarding this title such as 'Sayed', 'Seyed', 'Syid', 'Sayyid', etc. For more information refer to this article.

As opposed to most European names, 'Arash' (آرش) is NOT my middle name!  It's in fact my given name. In Persian, formally there is no such a thing as middle name, though one may try to pretend that the second word of his/her two-word given name is serving as the middle name. I have the honor to be named after 'Arash, the Archer' (آرش كمانگير) who is a heroic archer of the Persian mythology. To learn more about 'Arash, the Archer' and the legend click here.

My surname, 'Ostadzadeh' is actually the combination of two words 'ostad' (استاد), and 'zadeh' (زاده). 'ostad' literally means 'master' or 'expert'. If used in academia, informally refers to anyone who gives lectures or an instructor, and formally it refers to a full Professor. 'zadeh' means 'offspring' in Persian. My dad recalls that during his education in university, one professor, told him with a cheerful spirit, 'It's amazing that you have the honor of being a professor without much effort!'.

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Page was last updated on 24^th April 2007 by Arash Ostadzadeh.