10 hours ago3 points(+0/-0/+3Score on mirror)1 child
They changed their name because they never called themselves Persia and they wanted to emphasize their independence from European powers by using their domestic name internationally. "Iran" and "Aryan" do have related etymologies but Iran doesn't mean "land of Aryans".
It may not necessarily mean "land of the Aryans" in the direct sense but that's the connotation for why Iran was chosen as the name.
>Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it Iran, meaning the "Land of the Aryans" and Iranshahr. In Middle Persian sources, the name Arya and Iran is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for Achaemenids in the Middle Persian book of Arda Viraf refers to the invasion of Iran by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.[22]
>The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Persian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis.
Source doesn't work anymore but I find no reason not to believe this source didn't say this from the person who quoted it from this source. http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm