The name of orienta rugs are often different to pronounce and confusing to many. They conjure up image of faraway lands and exotic locales such as Sarouk, kashan, Bokhara, Peking, Samarkand, Heriz and Tabriz. The name of originally referred to the cities, village or nomatic tribe which specialied in a specific rug weave, pattern or quality. But using the cities to identify specific rug style is no longer a rule of thumb since many patterns are now woven in cities- and countries - other than their origin the names are now more useful in describing a pattern than discovering the area where the rug was made.

Today, many rug names include a prefix that identifies their country of origin. For example, the rug name 'Indo-Kashan' describes a rug with a Kashan design made in India, whereas a Sino-Tabriz is a Tabriz design made in China. This is not always the case, however, as new designs are sometimes given hteir own names by the wholesale rug companies that have them produced.