[In progress.] On Dating the Names All the names are from c. 1450 to 1650 CE, with the bulk coming from the middle to late 1500’s. Many of these names are so popular that in any source with a large enough sample, you have a fair chance of finding at…
Both men and women endowed vakfs, charitable foundations that bore their founder’s name and could endure for centuries. When I started reading a table of the names of women who endowed vakfs in the city of Ankara in the 14th through 16th centuries, I expected to find the usual [name]…
In September 2021, the head of the Osmanlı Mehter Takımı, the SCA’s Janissary band, asked me to “share a list of appropriate names for our Janissaries to possibly choose from in developing personas”. He was probably referring to my page of names of Muslim men from Sivas province, but that…
These names were extracted from the 1580-1583 court records for the city of Bursa, Turkey. They include the names of free Muslim women, free ethnic Greek women, and suspected or confirmed enslaved Muslim women. Muslim Women These names belonged to Muslim women who appear to have been free-born. Most were…
There’s plenty of data out there if you know what to put into Google… and if you speak Turkish. These are some of the words that unlock Google. ana – mother avrat – woman involved in immoral activities azadli – freed slave bikr-i bâliğa – unmarried woman cariye – female slave…
One of [the beauties] is Cotton ‘Ayni, a jasmine breastHer skin, like cotton, is delicate and moistHer body is a fresh sapling in the soul’s gardenHer mouth, of purest water, is a fountainI said, “Come to my breast,” said the heartbreaker,“What have fire and cotton to do together?” . —…
Almost all of the names on this list are the names of the deceased, and the date is the Georgian year in which they died. However, in the case of rare names, or names that had no deceased before the year 1600, I drew names and dates from the list…
Personal Characteristics Professions A number of professions haven’t been featured in a personal name in the sources I’ve worked with, but they’re period terms that could be used in a personal name. Here are some professions drawn from the names of neighborhoods in Ankara in 1523 [ERDO 2005]: Replacements for…