If President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his way at the United Nations, the country that goes by the name of the Republic of Turkey in English will in the coming weeks become officially known to the world as the Republic of Türkiye, which is close to the official Turkish name of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti as declared on 29 October, 1923.

The reason given for the name change is that it is felt that it best rebrands the country’s image internationally. Some commentators have also said that President Erdogan is irritated by the close association of the English name for his country with the American bird that is a favoured Christmas dish. Other definitions of the word “turkey”are also not flattering to Turks – according to Cambridge Dictionary the word denotes “something that fails badly” or “a stupid or silly person”.

In December, last year, the Turkish president issued a circular ordering the use of the word “Türkiye” not “Turkey” for all official communications with any country.

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The Greeks have used the the name “Tourkia” to describe the “Land of the Turks” for millennia. While the Romans Pomponius Mela referred to the “Land of the Turks” as “Turcase” and Pliny the Elder called the lands east of the Sea Azov as “Tyrkae”, Byzantine emperor scholar Constantine VII (913-959) was the first Greek to refer to “Tourkia” in his book “Di Adminstrado Imperio”.

The English have botched the name for centuries. In early Medieval times they referred to the land of the Turks as “Turchial” and “TurquiaTurquia”. Chaucer took a stab at it, calling it “Turkye” in one of his early works. The first time the word “Turkey” was used by the English in its current spelling was in 1719.

The change of a country’s name is nothing new in modern times. While many former colonies have adopted new names on their independence, the Union of Burma changed its official name to the Union of Myanmar in 1989. More recently, in 2018, the Kingdom of Swaziland has been officially re-branded as the Kingdom of Eswatini.