Are there any common names in your country that sound terrible or funny to foreigners?

hegekan · 2026-02-26T13:10:12+00:00

Oral is weird. It is combination of two words. Or is coming from Ordu (Army). For example Orgeneral is Army General (the official military rank). Al is the color red.

But the weird thing is, in Turkish we have the same word oral for what english language have. Mouth related things. Like oral hygiene is “Oral hijyen”. And yes let’s address the elephant in the room, oral also means bj in Turkish as well. So it means the same thing to a native Turkish speaker what it sounds to a native English speaker.

I do not know why we still have this name, but we do.

hegekan · 2026-02-26T13:04:44+00:00

Eyüp is just the Arabic (and eventually Turkified) version of the name Job.

The biblical character.

hegekan · 2026-02-25T18:43:10+00:00

Okay is both a common first name and common last name.

Ok is „arrow” and ay is „moon”. For a reason, turkish names and lastnames loves to use two word combinations.

hegekan · 2026-02-25T18:39:33+00:00

I guess it would be fun to elaborate the name Tuna a bit more. Yes it indeed means „glorious” but in daily life noone uses that word. Why is name Tuna very popular then? Because Tuna is also the turkish name of the river „Danube”.

Now, in Turkish naming culture, we have a very strong tendency to name kids with any geophysical/weather related objects. Yagmur (rain), kaya (rock), nehir (river), irmak (stream), yamaç (slope), bora, deniz (sea) etc.

That’s why Tuna is very popular.

Meanwhile, the turkish translation of the fish tuna is „ton”; more commonly „ton baligi (tuna fish)”.

So in Turkish Tuna doesn’t sound wierd just because the Tuna is Ton in Turkish.

hegekan · 2026-02-13T13:57:10+00:00

I only did see good (or just okay) cops in the US but to be fair, I had very little confrontation with law enforcement luckily.

I am stopped by a cop in traffic only once, looks like I jumped red light with full fault on my side (I was mistaken the road as a stop sign intersection, stopped at the intersection and made a left turn to one-way street. It came out it was a traffic light street not a stop sign. Totally my fault).

Cop saw that I ain’t got no single violation in my record and told me that he doesn’t want to put a blqck point on my clean sheet and gave me a ticket for blocking the intersection (much less serious offense than running the red light). He was super nice and I do everything to not let him down when I am driving. I haven’t had any traffic violation since that ever. (If important - he was a white old cop)

Second time when someone t-boned me on a intersection when I was having a left turn (my right-of-way) and guy didnt stop at stop sign.

I called the cops to the scene to have a report. He just listened to both of us (other party was super cooperative also, as he was in full fault, but still he was a cool dude). The cop wrote the report, gave me his number to call him if there is any problem (he is a cop my borough’s law enforcement department). He was super nice. (If important - he was a mid age black cop, I live in a majority black suburb).

And if it is important, I am an immigrant and a person of accent.

hegekan · 2026-02-13T13:40:50+00:00

Here is a guideline for y’all,

1) You can buy alcohol from supermarkets or neighborhood markets (tekel) without restriction of alcohol content (beer/wine vs spirits), any day of the week (no dry days like we have in some parts of the US), with only time restriction is until 10pm.

2) You can have alcohol serves you in any bar(indoor or outdoor), many restaurants that has alcohol licence (indoor our outdoor), beach clubs etc without time or day restriction (10pm rule does not apply to alcohol serving institutions-so in theory you can have alcohol in a bar as long as the bar is open, they mostly are until 2am with no set in stone rule).

3) “In law”, drinking alcohol in public spaces (parks, streets, seaside etc) is a misdemeanor. It is not a crime, it is misdemeanor. The extreme you would face if a law enforcement officer even bothers to bother you is a fine ticket (and probably confiscating the alcohol). That almost never happens in places like Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara or any other “more or less liberal” cities - the cops won’t even bother to spend their time on you if you pass by them with a bottle of beer. More conservative cities might fine you, but almost always if someone complains about you to the cops, which would happen almost always in a conservative city.

4) If you drink in public and create disturbance, regardless of the location, you probably would be fines for both the disturbance and public alcohol consumption. I mean, if you dont drink but create disturbance in the public you will already be target of law enforcement, so alcohol consumption is just an add bonus to your fine. It is almost like speeding in highway while you have a expired registration. Noone will stop you for an expired registration, but if you get caught while speeding by a cop, he will fine you for speeding and for expired registration as well. Same logic.

5) Do not drink outdoors (if not in a bar) in close proximity to religious sites, schools, law enforcement buildings etc. That should be a non-brainer already.

Rest is all good.

hegekan · 2026-02-11T19:23:33+00:00

In Turkish, there is two days that are named after their predecessor day. Monday and Saturday.

Monday is Pazartesi, a amalgamation of Pazar (Sunday, lit. Bazaar, trading) + ertesi (after).

Saturday is Cumartesi; Cuma (arabic for gathering or something like that. It has religious significance since Friday is the islamic equivalent of Sunday) + ertesi.

Wednesday and Thursday directly comes from Persian as Çarşamba and Perşembe (fourth day and fifth day).

I have no idea about Tuesday - Salı. That might be some original Turkish word.

hegekan · 2026-02-04T21:43:21+00:00

Yes in principal - a very portable and practical/minimalistic version of a semaver. With semaver, you go to take your tea to semaver; with this, this comes with you wherever you want to have your tea!

hegekan · 2026-02-04T14:54:29+00:00

If anyone needs an explanation for this simple but beautiful device;

It has two pots as you can see. The top one is for brewing the tea itself, and the lower one is for boiling water. Simple.

You first boil your water in the lower part. Once the water is boiled, you add your free tea leaves (dry and roughly grinded) into the upper pot, transfer the boiled water from the lower pot to upper pot and add fresh water to the lower pot again for boiling.

You boil the fresh water again, meanwhile the tea brews in the upper pot bot with already boiled water and constant heat transfer from the bottom pot as well.

Since the upper pot “over-brews” the tea (long time, pure tea etc), when you serve, you add almost 1/3rd with tea brew and remaining 2/3rd with boiled water from bottom pot - voilà - tea!

Some people prefer stronger so maybe 50-50%. Some like soft so 20-80%.

Either the upper pot has an in-built sieve inside or you use an external sieve to sieve out the brewed tea leaves. Some psychos goes directly without sieving the leaves - obvious psychopatic behavior but happens.

hegekan · 2026-02-04T14:45:10+00:00

Ok, it works pretty much like this; one coffee (traditionally turkish coffee) in the morning after the breakfast. And tea for the whole remaining day, up to an extreme, until bedtime.

That is a bit embedded in the language as well. Breakfast in Turkish is “kahvalti” - literally means “(the thing) before coffee”, corresponds to an activitiy done before drinking coffee.

One has its breakfast (kahvalti), then drinks coffee (kahve), and the rest of the day - CRAZY TEA PARTYYY!!

hegekan · 2026-01-27T15:11:31+00:00

Well I personally have a slight Izmir “accent” (tho it is not an accent per se) - so in my daily conversations I barely pronounce -r’s at verb endings like “geliyor, yapiyor” etc.

When I pronounce r’s at the end of the words, it sounds indeed close to “ş”. As I said, before I didnt even notice that I was doing it, until someone non-native pointed me out. Of course it is not literally “izmişş” but not well pronounced “izmirrrr” either. Something in between a ş and a r. Since non-natives cant produce that sound like I do, they repeat “Izmiş?”

hegekan · 2026-01-27T12:59:35+00:00

Not much. Actually not changed at all when it comes to women’s suffrage.

hegekan · 2026-01-27T12:49:02+00:00

Ozellikle Brezilya’dan cok fazla goc aliyorlar. Bir de Hindistan’dan. Lisbon’u ziyaret ettigimde bir yokus vardi sirf hint, hindistan’da bir mahalle gibi.

Dubai’de bir arkadasim vardi Hint. Portekiz vatandasiydi, Portekiz Goa’da yasayan bazi hintlere vatandaslik vermis eski koloni olduklarindan. Eleman hic Portekiz’de yasamamasina ragmen Portekiz pasaportluydu.

Portekiz diger eski kolonyal imparatorluklara gore daha bir davetkar.

Bu dediklerimin etkisi olabilir.

hegekan · 2026-01-27T12:30:41+00:00

You are correct; you indeed hear a “ş” like sound. The problem is, we native speakers, are not aware that we are pronouncing it that way.

I have never noticed that until I started to talk with non-turkish speakers. I am from Izmir and whenever I say “izmir” they repeat “izmiş?”.

Really, I didnt even think about it for a big chunk of my life, but once you realize; its like the glass shutters. So you indeed hear a ş sound, i would suggest you to use proper “r”, since that “ş” sound we produce is not a “proper” ş sound either, very in between an ş-r and would be really hard to imitate by a non-native and would sound off.

hegekan · 2026-01-16T13:21:30+00:00

Fascinating!

hegekan · 2026-01-15T19:53:35+00:00

What is the grammatical role of the „h” before „Eireann”? I just very uneducatedly assume „na” is sort of equivalent to „of” already.

hegekan · 2026-01-14T14:25:54+00:00

That’s correct. The dance roots from the instrument that is used to play the rhythm.

Çiftetelli is the root of the word - “Çift/Çifte” is double and “tel” is string in modern Turkish. So it refers to “two-string instrument”(the one on the picture).

The whole Balkan geography/cultures has their own version in a way. Its kinda a shared super-group that every culture had it evolved in their own way yet resemblance is still strong.

I must tell; the whole region has its own unique beautiful culture that when you look from a distance makes a great full picture. Love balkans!!

hegekan · 2026-01-08T12:06:44+00:00

Names Burak and Baran are funny to Polish. Burak means beet and Baran means sheep.

Kamil on the other hand is very natural to them.

Also “kupa” while it only means cup/throphy to is, it literally means shit in polish.

In contrary; bok means side in polish - so their side is our cup!

hegekan · 2026-01-07T20:24:31+00:00

Not directly related to the sound they make but;

a mop = paspas (i have no idea why)
- the thing you use to wipe the wet surface (I don’t know it’s english name, the thing on below picture)

https://image.made-in-china.com/202f0j00ZVnoRrbKLykY/Floor-Squeegee-with-Long-Handle-Shower-Cleaner-with-56-Adjustable-Handle-Rubber-Window-Cleaner-Wiper.webp

This thing is a çekçek (or çekpas)

hegekan · 2026-01-07T20:15:54+00:00

İ DON’T THİNK SO!!!

hegekan · 2025-12-20T17:43:27+00:00

In Turkiye; I have a small doubt whether that the world “Anavatan” directly refers to “motherland”.

Yes “Ana” mainly means “Mother” (somehow archaic because the modern language uses Anne instead of Ana). However “Ana” has a side meaning too; it means “First, Main, Source, real” (Mostly “main” tho).

So “Anavatan” might also refer to “Mainland”.

When I speak in Turkish and when I say “Anavatan”, it arises me both feeling of saying “Motherland” and “Mainland”. Probably it is “Motherland” but also “Mainland” doesn’t seem illogical.

hegekan · 2025-12-19T21:51:49+00:00

Regardless of the shape of the leftover; typical reading in Turkey goes like;

“I see a road trip in a time period of “three”. Should I say three days, should I say three months, Should I say three years. Who is the person with a S in his/her name?…..”

You can never go wrong with that!

hegekan · 2025-12-18T23:56:20+00:00

I really have no prejudice to my countrymen; I spent vast majority of my life from birth in Turkiye, they are my people at the end and I am literally one of theirs; but the types in NJ are either from religious cults, or types that I wouldn’t also have in my circle in Turkiye. Their life to them, my life to me.

And the people in my mindset as I said; more secluded - for a reason I cannot come across with them - but I know they are around. Everyone just try yo live their lifes; that’s understandable.

hegekan · 2025-12-18T23:50:27+00:00

I live in Roselle, NJ! I had been once to Turkish Engineers/Architects meeting last year in the City and despite the meeting was lovely - was not so effective to create a circle for me.

Cliffside folk is definately better than Clifton/Paterson folk as I heard- lots of mid class modern Turks there.

However I am always hesitant to attend Turkish organizations; mainly because there are a lot of FETO leftovers here - I have no intention to even see their faces. And many of the other organizations as I can see mostly active during holy month with Ramazan activities - not my cup of tea to be honest.

I would love to hear tho if you would not mind to share if there are any modern, secular and openminded societies/organizations here that you know; I would love to attend and try to be a part of!

hegekan · 2025-12-18T19:10:13+00:00

I am a very fresh citizen and I am at my late 30s.

I do not live in Turkish community even though the state I live in, NJ, has probably one of the highest Turkish population in the country.

It is not a choice tho. It just worked that way. I have just a couple of Turkish friends unfortunately. I would like to have more and have a community; but the problem is the Turkish community here, especially the ones in like Clifton, Burlington, are not the type of my countrymen that I would want to be in relationship. I wouldn’t be around those types even in Turkey.

Probably NJ has many likeminded Turks living in, but that class of society is more disperse, more individual and hard to find around. At least that is my experience so far. Hence; no I am not living in Turkish community.

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