Toponyms of Turkey

Toponyms of Population centers in Turkey

• Adana: from the Hittite ^URUAdaniya of Kizzuwatna, alternatives: related to the legendary character Danaus, Greek tribe Danaoi, Egyptian enemy country Danaja, Mycenaean refugees Dananayim or Danuna, and Da-na-vo, Scythian nomad people.
• Adıyaman: As the official Ottoman Turkish name Hısn-ı Mansur was difficult for the locals to pronounce, people were referring the city as adı yaman since the early 19th century, u.e. "its name is tough" or " whose name is tough" in Turkish.
• Afyonkarahisar: from, afyon "poppy, opium", kara "black", hisar "fortress"., i.e. The black castle of the Opium city' in Turkish.
• Ağrı: From Ağrı Dağı‎. The town center was known earlier as Karaköse formalized from KaraKise, short for Kara Kilise referencing a medieval Armenian church at Alashkert some 34 km west.
• Aksaray: From Ak Saray, i.e. The white palace.
• Akyaka, Muğla: From Ak Yaka, i.e. The white shore.
• Alanya: The Seljuks renamed the city Alaiye, a derivative of the Sultan Alaeddin Kayqubad I's name, from earlier versions. In his 1935 visit, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk finalized the name in the new alphabet as Alanya, changing the 'i' and 'e' in Alaiye, reportedly because of a misspelled telegram in 1933.
• Aliağa: after a member of the influential Karaosmanoğulları ayan family, Karaosmanoğlu Ali Ağa, who owned an estate here.
• Amasya: From the Greek name Ἀμάσεια comes from Amasis, the queen of the Amazons, who were said to have lived here. The name has changed little throughout history: Ἀμάσεια, Amaseia, Amassia and Amasia are all found on ancient Greek and Roman coinage and continue to be used in modern Greek. Ամասիա, Ottoman Turkish أماصيا, and modern Turkish Amasya all represent the same pronunciation.
• Anamur: from the Ancient Greek "Anemourion", Latinized as "Anemurium", meaning "windmill".
• Ankara: From the original Ánkyra in Greek and Ancyra in Latin, Angora in many European languages and Engürü in Ottoman Turkish.
• Antakya: From انطاكيا, Anṭākyā, previously أنطاكيّة, Anṭākīyyah from ܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ, Anṭiokia; Ἀντιόχεια, Antiókheia
• Antalya: The city was founded as "Attaleia", named after its founder Attalos II, king of Pergamon. This name, still in use in Greek, was later evolved in Turkish as Adalia and then Antalya.
• Ardahan: from არტაანი, Art’aani; Արդահան, Ardahan.
• Artvin: from ართვინი, Artvini; Laz: ართვინი Artvini, Armenian: Արդվին Ardvin
• Aydın: from EYE-din; ; formerly named Güzelhisar. Ancient Greek name is Tralles.
• Ayvalık: from Ayva and lık i.e. quint orchard in Turkish. Ancient Greek name is Kydonies. The new name is Hellenized to Aivali.
• Balıkesir: from türkmen Balak Hisar because of the remains of castle, as Hisar is the Turkish word for castle. The castle was Byzantine small town which had become increasingly neglected, known as Palaeokastron meaning Old Castle. The original castle was emperor built for Hadrian in A.D. 124, as a result of a successful bear hunting. Pre-Byzantine dynasty had used this castle as a vacation area and for hunting.
• Bartın: From the antique Parthenios city which dates back to 1200 BC, when its area was inhabited by the Kaskian tribe.
• Batman: origin of the name "Batman" for te river and the oil city is unclear: it might be a shortening of the name of the tall Bati Raman mountain located nearby or refer to the unit of weight used in the Ottoman Empire.
• Bitlis: From Բաղեշ Baghesh/Paghesh; Bidlîs; ܒܝܬ ܕܠܝܣ Beṯ Dlis; بتليس; Balales
• Bodrum: In classical antiquity Bodrum was known as Halicarnassus, a major city in ancient Caria. The modern name Bodrum derives from the town's medieval name Petronium, which has its roots in the Hospitaller Castle of St. Peter.
• Bolu: From Boli, Turkicized short for the Greek Polis 'city'.
• Burdur: From the Byzantine era, city baering the name Polydorion.
• Burhaniye: renamed Burhaniye after the Ottoman Prince Şehzade Burhanettin. previously called Taylıeli village, named after one of the Turkish beys who came to the aid of Seljuk ruler Süleyman. At the beginning of the 14th century it came under the domain of the Karasids and grew as it attracted migrants. In Ottoman times, it was also known as Kemer and attached to Edremit until 1866.
• Bursa: After Prusias I, the King of Bithynia who in 202 BC. was granted the Greek city of Cius, which rebuilt the city and renamed it Prusa
• Çanakkale: From Çanakkale ceramics, compared by one traveler to Delftware, and an Ottoman fortress called Kale-i Sultaniye or Sultaniye kalesi. As of 1920, the British began to call Çanakkale, Chanak and Kale Sultanie in their reporting. The place was earlier known by the straits Greek name Δαρδανέλλια, Dardanellia,
• Çankırı: From its name in antiquity Gangra. The city has also been known as Changra, Kandari or Kanghari.
• Çeşme: From "Çeşme" meaning "spring, fountain" in Persian, and the first settlement 2 km south of the present-day center Çeşmeköy founded by Tzachas.
• Çorum: ; from Karum Akkadian: kārum "quay, port, commercial district", plural kārū, from Sumerian kar "fortification, break-water" ancient Assyrian trade posts in Anatolia from the 20th to 18th centuries BC.
• Datça: from Stadia, a name of the city of Cnidus. Stadia developed into Tadya, Dadya, Dadça, and then Datça.
• Denizli: In the 17th century, the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Denizli and recorded the town as follows: "The city is called by Turks as as there are several rivers and lakes around it. In fact it is a four-day trip from the sea."
• Dikili: origin of the name is unclear, might mean an obelisk, a single stone column, or a not-fallen dead tree. Ancient Pitane and as yet unexplored site of Atarneus are located nearby.
• Diyarbakır: from diyar and bakr
• Doğubeyazıt: from Doğu and Beyazit after the Turkish warlord Celayırlı Şehzade Bayazıt Han who ordered one of the rebuildings even though the old castle with Armenian name Daruynk. was repaired many times throughout history. Ultimately, the town was renamed Beyazit itself in the 16th century and later in the 1930s a new town was built in the plain below the old site, hence the new name "Doğubayazıt", which literally means "East Beyazıt".
• Düzce: From Düzce Pazar a marketplace on the plain 8 km from the historical Konuralp, the seat of the Turkish conqueror of the area on behalf of Osman I at 13th century.
• Edirne: From Adrianople,
• Edremit, Balıkesir: From the original in Greek Adramyttion or Adramytteion
• Enez: From the original in Greek Ainos, Latinized as Aenus.
• Erbaa: From "Erbaa" means "four" in Arabic. Erek, Karayaka, Sonusa, and Taşâbat were collectively named as Nevah-i Erbaa, "four towns" in Arabic as they were in the same region and close to one another.
• Erdek: formerly Artàke, Αρτάκη
• Erzincan: Acilisene, the ancient city that is now Erzincan, was the site of the Peace of Acilisene by which in AD 387 Armenia was divided into two vassal states, a smaller one dependent on the Byzantine Empire and a larger one dependent on Persia. This is the name by which it is called by Strabo in his Geography, 11.4.14. The etymological origin of the word is disputed, but it is agreed that the city was once called Erez. For a while it was called Justinianopolis in honour of Emperor Justinian. In more recent Greek it has been called as Κελτζηνή and Κελεζηνή In the Armenian language, the 5th-century Life of Mashtots called it Yekeghiats In the more recent past, it was known in Armenian as Երզնկա
• Erzurum: A neighboring commercial city named Artze was heavily sacked by the Seljuk Turks in 1048–49. Its Armenian, Syrian, and other Christian inhabitants moved to Theodosiopolis, which they began calling "Artsn Rum" to distinguish it from their former residence. Some older sources derive the name Erzurum from the Arabic Arḍ ar-Rūm 'land of the Rûm'.
• Eskişehir: The name Eskişehir literally means "Old City" in Turkish; indeed, the city was founded by the Phrygians in at least 1000 BC, although it has been estimated to be older than 4000 years old. The city was known as Dorylaeum in Greek under the Roman Christian era.
• Fethiye: In 1934, the city was renamed 'Fethiye' in honor of one of the first pilots of the Ottoman Air Force, killed in 1914 by Al-Samra. Modern Fethiye is located on the site of the ancient city of Telmessos. Over the cnturies it has been called Telmissos, Anastasioupolis, Makre, Makri and Beskaza during the Turkish period.
• Gaziantep: formerly called Antep or Aīntāb in Ottoman Turkish, ‘Aīntāb in Arabic, there are several theories for the origin of its name:
• * Aïntap may be derived from khantap, meaning "king's land" in the Hittite language.
• * Aïn, an Arabic and Aramaic word meaning "spring", and tab as a word of praise.
• * Antep could be a corruption of the Arabic ‘aīn ṭayyib meaning "good spring". However, the Arabic name for the city is spelled with t, not ṭ.
• * Ayin dab or Ayin debo in Aramaic, meaning "spring of the wolf"
• * The Crusaders called the city and its castle "Hantab", "Hamtab", and "Hatab".
• * Gaziantep is the probable site of the Hellenistic city of Antiochia ad Taurum.
• *In February 1921, the Turkish parliament honored the city as غازى عينتاب Ghazi Aīntāb or "Antep the war hero" to commemorate its resistance to the French Siege of Aintab during the Franco-Turkish War, part of the Turkish War of Independence, and that name was officially adopted in 1928 as Gaziantep.
• Gebze: Origin of the name is unclear. Ottoman records contains these variations: Geybüyze, Geybüveyze, Geyibüveyze, Geyiboyze, Geykivize. Evliya Celebi in one of his trips called it Kekbeziye, in another trip he gave the sentence "Gel bize" as explanation for the origin.
• Gelibolu: from Καλλίπολις, Kallipolis, "Beautiful City"
• Giresun: formerly Cerasus in Greek. the etymology might be related to the Greek word κερασός "cherry" + -ουντ. Thus, the Greek root of the word "cherry", κερασός, predates the name of the city, and the ultimate origin of the word cherry is probably from a Pre-Greek substrate, likely of Anatolian origin, given the intervocalic σ in Κερασοῦς and the apparent cognates of it found in other languages the region. Another theory derives Kerasous from κέρας "horn" + -ουντ, for the prominent horn-shaped peninsula that the city is situated on. The toponym would have later mutated into Kerasunt, and the word "cherry" was derived from the name of the city itself, rather than the other way around.
• Göcek, Fethiye: possibly from Turkish male name meaning young, fresh, beautiful. The word also is used to mean one foot tall young wheat plant.
• Güllük: Literally "for roses" or rose garden.
• Gümüşhane: From Gümüş, and Hane i.e. Silver house in Turkish. Name due to the many silver mines in the area. The greec population used for a while in the 19th century the unofficial translation to Argyrópolis or Arghyropolis, Αργυρόπολις
• Hakkari: unclear name origin
• Iğdır: after a western Turkish clan called Iğdır that belonged to a branch of the Oghuz Turks.
• İskenderun: From Alxander the great
• Isparta: from Σπάρτη, Baris/Βάρις in Byzantine Greek
• İstanbul: Derived from the Medieval Greek phrase "εἰς τὴν Polis, which means "to the city", how Constantinople was referred to as the only major city in the vicinity by the local Greeks.
• İzmit: from the Ancient Greek name of the city, Nicomedia. Names used in English prior to official Turkish Latinization include Ismid, Iskimid, and Isnikmid.
• İzmir: from original Greek name "Smyrna" and "Smyrne"
• Kahramanmaraş:
• Kandıra: From Kéndri or Kándora.
• Karabük: From Kara and bük i.e. black bush in Turkish. Karabük was built in the 1930s as the seat of the iron and steel industry of Turkey.
• Karaman: From Karaman Bey who was one of the rulers of the Karamanid dynasty. The former name was Laranda which in turn comes from the Luwian language Larawanda, literally "sandy, a sandy place".
• Kars: As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia. For the origin of the name "Kars", some sources claim it to be derived from the Georgian word კარი, meaning "the gate" as was the case for other border region strongholds while other sources claim it is from the Armenian word հարս, meaning "bride", or rather from կառուց բերդ, "Kaṛuts Fortress". The Turkish etymology offered by M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, has been dismissed as unsustainable by scholars.
• Kastamonu: The city is believed to have been founded in the 18th century BC. The town was known as Timonion during the Roman period. The change of name of the town dates to the 10th century AD. Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, a Thracian soldier who became a prominent general and the father of the Byzantine emperor Isaac I Komnenos, was given lands around Kastamonu by Emperor Basil II and built a fortress there named Kastra Komnenon. Manuel came to the notice of Basil II because of his defence, in 978, of Nicaea against the rebel Bardas Skleros. The name Kastra Komnenon was shortened to Kastamone, and later turkified to Kastamoni and Kastamonu.
• Karataş: From Kara and taş i.e. black stone in Turkish.
• Kaş: in the 1600s the Lord of Teke observed Kaş and Meis from the top of the hill and said, "If the islet of Meis Adası is the eye, then this place will be its kaş." It seems Kaş was founded by the Lycians, as Habesos or Habesa. In the Hellenistic period and under the Roman Empire it served as the port of Phellus. It was called Andifli under Arab, Seljuks, and Ottomans, and Kaş since the 1600s.
• Kayseri: originally called Mazaka or Mazaca by the Hattians and was known as such to Strabo, during whose time it was the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia, known also as Eusebia at the Argaeus, after Ariarathes V Eusebes, King of Cappadocia. The name was changed again by Archelaus, last King of Cappadocia and a Roman vassal, to "Caesarea in Cappadocia" in honour of Caesar Augustus, upon his death in 14 AD. When the Muslim Arabs arrived, they adapted the pronunciation to their writing resulting in Kaisariyah, and this eventually became Kayseri when the Seljuk Turks took control of the city in circa 1080, remaining as such ever since.
• Kazlıçeşme, Zeytinburnu: from the historic fountain with a relief goose figure below the fountain's inscription, which dates it back to Hijri year AH 953.
• Kilis: In the tablets belonging to the Assyrian period, the name 'Ki-li-zi' is written in cuneiform and a city named as "Ciliza Sive Urnagiganti" during the Roman Empire period is mentioned.
• Kırklareli: From 'Kırk' and 'El', i.e. The land of the forties in Turkish.
• Kırşehir: From 'Kır' and 'şehir', i.e. The grey / steppe city in Turkish.
• Kırıkkale: From 'Kırık' and 'kale', i.e. The broken castle in Turkish.
• Konya: from εἰκών, as an ancient Greek legend ascribed its name to the "eikon", or the "gorgon's head", with which Perseus vanquished the native population before founding the city. if not hellenised from an earlier Luvian name.
• Kuşadası: From 'Kuş' and 'ada', i.e. The island of birds in Turkish.
• Kütahya: From the original in Greek Kotyaion, Latinized in Roman times as Cotyaeum.
• Malatya: From the Hittite Malidiya.
• Manisa: From Magnesia the place where the original magnetic rocks came from.
• Mardin: From a Syriac/Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language name translating to "fortress" used as the Roman period name Marida,
• Marmara Ereğlisi: From name given 300 AD as Heraclea.
• Marmaris: From the Turkish word mermer, Greek màrmaron in reference to the rich deposits of marble in the region.
• Mersin: From Mersin Bey, a leader of the Oghuz Turks, a local clan named Mersinoğulları reported by Evliya Çelebi
• Milas: From ancient name associated with Lycians
• Muğla: From ancient name Mobolla
• Muş: From Mushki the ancient clan with clover as sign that built the original castle later demolished by Suleiman the Magnificent
• Nazilli: According to legend, the son of Aydın's governor in the Ottoman period, fell in love with a young woman from Pazarköy but was rejected by the girl's father. The young man later named the town Nazlı Ili after his loved one.
• Nevşehir: From Nev, and şehir
• Niğde: From Anahita, Nakita or Nahita an ancient goddess for fertility. Later, Nakida, Nekide, Nîkde
• Ordu: From Ordu the 12000 strong army gathered at Eskipazar in 1396 by Hacı Emiroğlu Süleyman Bey to conquer Giresun.
• Osmaniye: Related to Osman
• Rize: From the original in Greek ρίζα or Ριζαίον, meaning "mountain slopes",ρίζα in Greek means root.
• Samsun: From the original in Greek: Amisos by a reinterpretation of eis Amison and ounta to eis Sampsunda and then Samsun.
• Şanlıurfa: From prehistoric Ur, ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhai in Syriac, Ուռհա Uṙha in Armenian, الرها Ar-Ruhā in Arabic and Ορρα, Orrha in Greek. Şanlı means "great, glorious, dignified" in Turkish.
• Siirt: From Keert or Kaa’rat,
• Sinop: from the original in Greek: Σινώπη, translit. Sinṓpē, historically known as Sinope /sɪˈnoʊpi/, after Sinope the goddess from Greek mythology.
• Şırnak: From Kurdish: Şirnex or Şehr-i Nuh since it was believed locally, near Cudi Mountain, where Noah's Ark finally to have landed after the Flood.
• Silivri: From the ancient Greek Selymbria or Selybria, after the mythological thracian founder of the city, Selus.
• Sivas: From "Sebaste", which is the feminine form of the Greek name corresponding to Augustus.
• Tarsus, Mersin: from Tarsa, the original name of the city in the Hittite language, which was possibly derived from a pagan god, Tarku.
• Tavşanlı: Named 'with rabbits' in Turkish after a hunting party held by the Ottoman prince Bayezid I, in which he is said to have hunted 7 rabbits.
• Tekirdağ: From tekfur and dağı, i.e. 'Mountain of Byzantine lord' in Turkish.
• Tokat: From Tokat or Toktat in old Turkish.
• Trabzon: From the original in Greek: Τραπεζοῦς, referencing the table-like central hill between the Zağnos and Kuzgun streams on which it was founded of bronze in Turkish
• Uşak: From the original in Greek: Ousakeion Turkified as Uşşak; which could mean "lovers" and "minstrels" simultaneously.
• Van: From Kingdom of Van, derived from the Urartian toponym Biainili, which was adopted in Old Armenian as Van, because of betacism in linguistics.
• Yalıkavak: From Yalı, and Kavak i.e. 'birch tree at the beach' in Turkish.
• Yalova: From Yalı, and Ova i.e. 'low lying farmland at the beach' in Turkish.
• Yenişehir, Bursa: From Yeni, and şehir i.e. 'New town' in Turkish.
• Yomra: From the name of a type of apple grown locally.
• Yozgat: From Yoz, and Kant i.e. 'city with grassland' in old Turkish.
• Yumurtalık: From Yumurta, and lık i.e. 'egg nest' in Turkish
• Zonguldak: from Zone Geul-Dagh'', the name given to the area by French and Belgian mining companies to refer to the zone near "Geul-Dagh" or Göldağı, the highest mountain in the vicinity.

  Toponomy of Turkeys regions

• Sakarya Province: From, the third longest river in Turkey that crosses the area and runs into the Black Sea.
• İçel Province: From İç, and el i.e. 'inner land' in Turkish.
• Dicle Province: From river that crosses the area. The name derives through Akkadian Idiqlat from the original Sumerian name for the river, Idigna.
• Hatay Province: From the Neo-Hittite "Hattena" people that ruled the area after Hittites before Assyrians

  Toponomy of Turkeys historical regions

• Paphlagonia: From the legends from Paphlagon, a son of Phineus.
• Bithnia or Sakarya: Named in antiquity for the Thracian tribe of the Bithyni, mentioned by Herodotus alongside the Thyni.
• Cilicia or Çukurova: The low lying meadows in Turkish, the name in antiquity is from the eponymous Hellene founder in the purely mythical Cilix
• Pontus

  Hydronyms of Turkey

• İstanbul Boğazı or Bosphorus: from the Ancient Greek Βόσπορος, which was folk-etymologised as βοὸς πόρος, i.e. "cattle strait"
• Çanakkale Boğazı or Dardanelles, also known from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont
• Marmara Denizi or Propontis: The sea of Marmara; From Marmara Island, which is rich in sources of marble, from the Greek μάρμαρον, "marble". The sea's ancient Greek name Propontis derives from pro- and pontos, deriving from the fact that the Greeks sailed through it to reach the Black Sea, Pontos.
• Ege denizi: The sea of Aegea ; Named after the Greek town of Aegae; after Aegea, a queen of the Amazons who died in the sea; Aigaion, the "sea goat", another name of Briareus, one of the archaic Hecatonchires; or, especially among the Athenians, Aegeus, the father of Theseus, who drowned himself in the sea when he thought his son had died. A possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = "waves", hence "wavy sea", cf. also αἰγιαλός + hals ), hence meaning "sea-shore".
• Kara Deniz or pontos : From Kara, and Deniz i.e. 'Black Sea' in Turkish adopted after the 13th century. The principal name used earlier is Greek name "Póntos Áxeinos", generally accepted to be a rendering of Iranian word *axšaina-. Black is the cardinal color indicating north. Altered version á-xenos. Mythological version the "Inhospitable Sea", Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, More euphemistic version the "Hospitable sea", Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos; both were first attested in Pindar.
• Ak Deniz or Mediterranean Sea: From Ak, and Deniz i.e. 'White Sea' in Turkish;
• Kızılırmak River or Kizil River: From Kızıl ırmak in Turkish due to its red coloured water, also known as the Halys River , the longest river in Turkey.
• Yeşilırmak River or Yeşil River: From Yeşil ırmak in Turkish due to its water reflecting the green mountain slopes, or from the direction it originates, also known in classical Greek as Ίρις, Iris.
• Sakarya River: From name in Greek translit=Sangarios, the third longest river in Turkey.
• Fırat or Euphrates: From ; Sumerian: Buranuna; 7 Purattu; translit=al-Furāt; ̇ܦܪܬ Pǝrāt; Եփրատ: Yeprat; פרת Perat; Fırat; Firat
• Dicle or Tigris : The name derives through Akkadian Idiqlat from the original Sumerian name for the river, Idigna.
• Van Gölü: Other names in local languages are similar and derive from Kingdom of Van, derived from the Urartian toponym Biainili, which was adopted in Old Armenian as Van, because of betacism in linguistics.
• Tuz Gölü: From Tuz, and Gölü i.e. 'Lake of salt' in Turkish

  Exonomy of Turkey

• Asia Minor or Anatolia : from Medieval and Modern Greek: Μικρά Ἀσία Mikrá Asía, "small Asia"; Küçük Asya), Asian Turkey, the Anatolian peninsula, or the Anatolian plateau, Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolḗ; Anadolu "east" or "rise"). The Asian part of Turkey i.e. pthe part east of bosphorus, Maramara and Dardanelles.
• Thrace : from the heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, and sister of Europa. The word Thrace indicating the European part of Turkey i.e. the part west of bosphorus, Maramara and Dardanelles, was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. It referred originally to the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeast Europe. The name Europe first referred to Thrace proper, prior to the term vastly extending to refer to its modern concept. In Turkish, it may be referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans, owing to this region being the last part of the Eastern Roman Empire that was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.