Urban toponymy in Turkey

Abstract

“Man [or object] does not exist unless he has a name. It must be named to exist” (Tesone, 2013: 73). Names are studied by different sciences. The act of naming is the bearer of meanings, and naming is the subject of urban toponymy. Cities consist of several levels of names. Urban toponymy addresses place names, such as street, square, park, school, and bridge names, at all levels in urban spaces. This research aims to present an evaluation of urban toponymy studies in Turkey. Hence 25 published articles are examined by using content analysis. As a result, research reveals an increase in the number of studies being done on the origin of urban place names. These are especially related to the classification of street and neighborhood names. In these classifications, the effect of Turkey's recent history on naming is elucidated by using ‘republic’ streets, referring to the government and those who founded the Turkish republic in 1922. Human characteristics of the geographical setting are extremely important in the analysis. Due to the upsurge in interest in cultural geography, urban toponymy is appraised here with a critical approach. For instance, local administrators with different political perspectives have tried to project their ideologies onto spaces by place naming. Also although not frequently, urban names are used to create more prestigious urban spaces for economic gain.