Khosrow is the name of several kings of Persia, including Khosrow II, who is featured in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (meaning Book of Kings, an epic long poem about the mythical history of the Persian empire), as well as an epic poem titled Khosrow and Shirin (also known as Shirin and Farhad); while the Shahnameh focused on the battles of Khosrow, the latter was written as a tragic romantic poem and which had very little to do with the actual historical figures. Khosrow seems to have originated from a Middle Persian name, Husraw meaning “fame, good repute”, which comes from Proto-Indo-European *Hhućráwah, made up from PIE root words *h₁su (good) and *ḱléwos (fame). However, Khosrow later became associated as a royal title meaning “king” and later became an epithet given to the kings of Persia, much like Caesar became an imperial title given to Roman emperors after Julius Caesar.
Origin: Proto-Indo-European
Variants:
- Khosrau
- Khusrau
- Khusraw
- Khusro
- Khosro
- Chosroes
- Osroes (Greek)
- Hüsrev (Turkish)
- Kisra (Arabic)
Khosrow- خسرو (Persian)
