Vol. 73 No. 3 (2025): Names: A Journal of Onomastics
Articles

Nation Rebranding in Turkey: Etymological Hypersensitivities, Connotational Tensions, and Populist Agendas

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  • Ali Fuad Selvi
Ali Fuad Selvi
The University of Alabama
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/names.2025.2679

Published 2025-09-02

Keywords

  • Turkey,
  • Türkiye,
  • etymology,
  • endonym,
  • nation branding,
  • toponymy,
  • exonym
    • ...More
    Less

Copyright (c) 2025 Ali Fuad Selvi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

In December 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a memorandum mandating the use of the endonymic version of the country’s name, Türkiye, over its exonymic counterpart, Turkey, for all official activities and correspondences, and languages. Framed as a strategic maneuver to “strengthen the Türkiye brand”, this toponymic reconfiguration is a multifaceted nation-rebranding strategy operating at the political, economic, and sociolinguistic levels (Selvi 2023). The present study adopts a micro-level focus on the role that populist sociolinguistic hypersensitivities have played in this change, including the deeply rooted etymological irritation stemming from the misinterpreted linkage between the turkey (the animal) and Turkey (the country) which have led to taunts and mockery; the pejorative semantic interpretations equating the name with “something that fails badly” or “a stupid person”); and the connotational nuances arising from turkey-related puns. It critically highlights inconsistencies, operational challenges, and ineffective nation-rebranding attempts. Furthermore, it underscores the central role of the English language as both the primary target and the catalyst — prompting a domino effect across languages in the instructed toponymic reconfiguration. Ultimately, this study contributes to understanding (re)naming practices as multi-layered manifestations of symbolic power, linguistic evolution, and complex identity negotiations across political, economic, and sociolinguistic domains.

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