An Etymological Investigation of Two Toponyms in the Province of Hamedan

Geographical names, referred to as ‘toponyms’, make a large set of lexemes gathered over centuries. To study toponyms is important since they provide good clues about many historical facts from which nothing has been left, except a few names.As linguistic units, they are exposed to any change that may occur in a language. The study of toponyms, based on the methods of historical-comparative linguistics, and using historical and geographical information provides their comprehensive etymology.The present article is a historical- etymological survey of two toponyms in Hamedan province: ‘Nahavand ‘ and ‘Adrapana’. According to the findings of the research, the ancient toponym of ‘Nesa’, and the city ‘Nahavand ‘ are related to each other. This helps to locate ancient ‘Nesa’ and ‘Adrapana’., which are of archeological and historical-geographical importance.