THE ORIGIN OF AHISKA TURKISH FEMALE NAMES AND ITS INVESTIGATION IN THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT

Abstract

Thanks to the name, a person creates his being and receives value and acceptance from society. The tradition of naming has always been important among the Turkish people. Examples of this can be found in the epic poem of Oguz Kagan and the book of Dede Korkut. While the choice of the name gives us information about the people depending on where they live, names also provide a lot of information as they bear traces of the nation's culture and customs. In particular, the Ahiska Turks, are exiled and scattered over many areas of the world. They struggled to survive and interacted with numerous cultures by staying in different cultural areas, they preserved their traditions and started to create new names by not being indifferent to innovations. Names are vital in showing cultural effects among Ahıska Turks who continue the tradition of naming. If we look at the pre-exilic and post-exilic periods, there is a differentiation in names. The traces of Islamic influence are generally seen in the preexilic period, while the Russian, Georgian, and Kazakh origin names are common in the post-exile. The presence of their names shows that they lived together with these people and were influenced socio-culturally. The fact that the Ahıska Turks remain loyal to their traditions and are open to other societies clearly shows that they are tolerant and open to developments and innovations. In this study, the importance of anthroponymy in the Turkish naming tradition was pointed out, and the information about the Ahiska people and the collected Ahıska Turkic women's names were studied and evaluated in terms of their origin in the context of sociocultural interactions of societies.