Other birds

Turna, the crane, is the bird most often addressed in Turkish folk poetry. In türkü songs it carries news and greetings to a distant beloved. The word is Turkic and names a long-necked migratory bird. The surname Turna is that bird's name; its place in folk song lends the word a certain warmth. Whether any family chose it because of the songs, nobody can say.

Songbirds

Bülbül, the nightingale, is a small bird known for its song. The word is of Persian origin and is paired with the rose in both classical and folk poetry. Kumru, the turtledove, looks like a smaller pigeon. Toygar is a kind of lark. Serçe, the sparrow, lives close to human settlements. These names are used as surnames on their own, without a suffix.

Game and water birds

Keklik, the partridge, is a game bird of rocky, hilly ground; the word is Turkic. Turaç, the francolin, is a similar game bird. Kuğu, the swan, is a long-necked white water bird. Ördek (duck), kaz (goose) and leylek (stork) also fit this hub. Güvercin, the pigeon, is here too; dictionaries give differing views on the word's origin and offer no settled account.

The word kuş itself

Kuş, “bird”, is among the oldest words in Turkish. It appears as the head in compounds such as Akkuş “white bird” and Gökkuş “sky bird”. One distinction matters: Karakuş is a separate TDK word meaning “eagle”, and it belongs to the birds-of-prey hub. Agent nouns in -CI such as Kuşçu go to the occupational hub.

Form

Names in this hub are mostly single words. Vowel harmony holds within each word: Turna is back-vowelled, Keklik front-vowelled. In compounds the two parts keep their own sounds; Akkuş sets two back vowels side by side.

The 1934 setting

Article 3 of the Surname Law banned names that offended public decency or were ridiculous. Bird names were not the kind of word to fall foul of that ban. Even so, the power to decide whether a name complied with the law lay with the senior civil administrator, and our sources hold nothing on individual decisions.

Why it is interesting

Birds of prey are linked with strength and hunting; the birds of this hub with beauty, song and longing. Within one animal group the two fields of association sit side by side. Bülbül and Turna show that surnames drew on the words of poetry as well as on words of power.