Famous names of nations...

Ulubatli

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I'm starting with a story:

"Once upon a time, Turks were in a battle with Jews. Turks had more man than Jews. They were so close to each other, even they were able to see each other loading their guns. Jews were loosing power, but they were sly.

'Mehmet, where are you?' shouted a Jew. Almost half of the Turks stood up, and got shot by Jews.

It was Jews' turn to attack, coz they outnumbered Turkish soldiers.

However, Turks were cunning.

'I found one dollar, whose is this?' shouted a Turk, and all of the Jews stood up and got shot...

Turks won the battle."

--- The name 'Mehmet' is very common in Turkey. At least %20 of males named 'Mehmet'.

Dou you guys have any common name like this?
 
In English, I think that "John" and "William" (= "Bill") are maybe the commonest male given name, but nothing like 20% (probably not more than 1%). Mary, Jennifer (=Jenny...) and Elizabeth (=Lisa, Liz, Lizy) are quite common female names. But usage is quite different depending on the country for English. For example, names like Joshua (m.) or Amanda (f.) are almost certainly American, while names like Paul (m.) or Helen (f.) have higher chances to be British (or European).

In French, the most usual male names are probably Pierre and Nicolas, but there are especially lots of very common female names. Among young people, I think that over 30% of girls/women are called one of these names : Marie, Sophie, Catherine, Virginie...

In Japanese, female names tend also to be the more similar. The most common in my experience are : Yuuko, Akiko and Hiroko.
 
A question flashed in my mind suddenly... Are those names related with any successors in history or religious people that those nations believe in?
 
Yes ansd no. Depends on the name. "John" or "Mary" are biblical, but others cited are not. Among European names, you have Latin ones (some of which were Roman emperors names), Greek ones (Sofie from "sofia", which means "wisdom", like in philosofia => philosophy // mythological ones like Hector, Helen...), Germanic ones, Celtic ones, etc. They all have a meaning, and you can find famous people with almost any names, so that doesn't mean these famous people were the first ever to be called like that. Same in Turkish or in any other languages.
 
African-American names

In the U.S., we have some unique names, especially among the African-American community. Based on African names, African-American names incorporate unique adoptations: Tyron, Demontrae, Shalonda, Myesha, Fonquisha, etc.
 
Favourite names in Germany 2003

male:
1. Maximilian
2. Alexander
3. Leon
4. Paul
5. Lukas/Lucas
6. Felix
7. Luca
8. David
9. Tim
10. Jonas

female:
1. Marie
2. Sophie
3. Maria
4. Anna, Anne
5. Lea(h)
6. Laura
7. Lena
8. Leonie
9. Julia
10. Sara(h)


Poor kids! I always hated my legal name for being a trendy one, so many others with the same name.
When I was at school, half the boys shared 3 or 4 names (BTW, these old favourites are not in the Top10 nowadays).
 
ulubatli,

I couldn't help but reply to your observation of most common Turkish name, which I would guess to be right...

Most of the men in my family gets to be named Mehmet, and it's a tradition of ours for about 2 centuries now. Although it is not our surname, we have come to be known as the Memolar Family in our region for that reason. Things get complicated sometimes, and you always have to explicitly specify who you are talking about, but I think this is just a nice feature of ours.
 
gokce said:
ulubatli,

I couldn't help but reply to your observation of most common Turkish name, which I would guess to be right...

Most of the men in my family gets to be named Mehmet, and it's a tradition of ours for about 2 centuries now. Although it is not our surname, we have come to be known as the Memolar Family in our region for that reason. Things get complicated sometimes, and you always have to explicitly specify who you are talking about, but I think this is just a nice feature of ours.

Aren't Hakan, Serkan, and Onur very popular in Turkey ? Also I'm sure you have Mustafa as a pretty common name, perhaps amongst the older generations.
 
Sorry I forgot to check this page, so didn't see your message until now..

well yes you are right. Onur, Hakan, Serkan are also popular names and they are very commonly used.

By the way upon reading your reply Duo I made a visit to the official population statistics page on this address:

http://www.nvi.gov.tr/content/attached/nvi/istatistikler/encokkullanilanilk5erkekadi.pdf

:) according to this Mustafa is still the second most commonly used name, while Mehmet is officially the first...

How do you know all these names?
 
Last edited:
gokce said:
Sorry I forgot to check this page, so didn't see your message until now..

well yes you are right. Onur, Hakan, Serkan are also popular names and they are very commonly used.

By the way upon reading your reply Duo I made a visit to the official population statistics page on this address:

http://www.nvi.gov.tr/content/attached/nvi/istatistikler/encokkullanilanilk5erkekadi.pdf

:) according to this Mustafa is still the second most commonly used name, while Mehmet is officially the first...

How do you know all these names?


Well, since I'm Albanian I know a bit about Turkish culture, also I have met many turks, and I also went to Turkey last summer with one of my best friends who is also turkish. I've even known a girl with the name Gokce :wave:
 
I see. (By the way I think Gokce is common also but not that common. It is a unisex name)
 
On the other end, one of my recent ancestors had a daughter he named "Elfaim Allafoni "

Probably the only one in the world.

I have been told this might translate to "she will bring a different sound" She was the 5th child and the only daughter, so that "different sound" sort of makes sense.
 
On the other end, one of my recent ancestors had a daughter he named "Elfaim Allafoni "

Probably the only one in the world.

I have been told this might translate to "she will bring a different sound" She was the 5th child and the only daughter, so that "different sound" sort of makes sense.

my daughter's name is "Arya Tais" (arya: to be of noble origin; tais: beloved), i guess that one is also unique.

in turkey, we have different type of names, some comes from arabic (/islamic) and persian origin (like mehmet, ahmet, mustafa etc.) some have turkish origin (like ugur (luck), tolga (helmet), barış (peace), başak (ear (grain)), berrak (clean (water)), deniz (sea) etc.

turkish names remind me US indian names. you can select anything around you as a name (e.g. i plan to select the name "coşkun ırmak" (means rapturous river) for my "concepted" second child. i like turkish names too much, although none of the my childs name is turkish (arya, i guess, is indian; tais is greek/ukranian.
 

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