TURK AND HIS NAME

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

TURK AND HIS NAME

FAMILY NAMES FOR ALL. One of the latest laws passed by the Turkish Parliament makes it compulsory for everyone to have a surname.. It comes to Westerners as something of a surprise to learn that the family name is unusual in Turkey to-day, though it was in regular use 200 years ago. It seems that surnames have been retained only in the country districts and for commercial purposes. In the towns it has become the . habit to give a man a nickname, distinguishing him as well by the name of his father or some adjective characteristic of some peculiarity. The pew law insists that every family

should adopt a name, and that the name should not be military or comic. We hope this adoption of family names will not lead to snobbishness on the part of the Turks, and that they will find the golden mean between the nickname and a bombastic surname. We do not think they will be able to eliminate the nicknames, for a nickname is usually most descriptive, and few of us could lay our hands on our hearts and say that we do not think of test of friends by nicknames which describe them much more appropriately than their family names. Indeed, many of our family names, like Redhead, Strongbow. Little and Long were orginally nicknames. But for all that, it is necessary that civilised people should be easily identifiable by those who do not know them intimately, and a family name is essential for legal and other relationships in the modern State.