Geographical Analysis of Village Names in Erciş District (Van)

Abstract

Human beings have been interacting with the place they live on since the day they existed. As a natural consequence of this, he used various names in order to recognize/describe the place. In giving these names (toponymy), either natural environment factors, human factors or economic factors played an active role. At this point, the aim of the study is to reveal which geographical factors (natural, human and economic factors) are effective in naming the villages in Erciş district. There are 87 villages in total in the research area. While 48,3% of the villages in the research area are named after their natural environment, 41,4% are named after human and economic characteristics. In the district apart from these, the rate of other village names (not included in any category) is 10,3%. In the study area, the natural environment and human and economic characteristics of the village names were also examined by dividing them into sub-categories. According to this, the highest rate among the villages that take their names from the natural environment features belongs to topography with 36%, while the lowest rate belongs to pedology with 2%. However, among the villages that take their names from human and economic characteristics, the highest rate of 33% belongs to Tribe, Community, Tribe and important individuals.