Geographical evaluation of rural settlement names: The case of Bayramören (Çankırı) district

Abstract

All societies perceive and named the environment that they lived in with the cultural level they create. Through this perception, all societies make some changes in the environment they live. This change occurs in both physical and human geography. They make these changes for different reasons and a nexus occurs between the environment and the human being. This nexus created in the natural and human environment becomes visible by naming whatever level and quality. A large part of the researches on the toponym in Turkey is about urban settlements and village centers. Rural settlements do not consist only of central settlements in the village administrative area. There are many rural settlements in multi-settled village administrative areas. There are not enough studies in the literature about the toponym characteristics of rural settlements except village centers. This research is one of the pioneering studies covering all settlements in village administrative areas to contribute to the rural settlement names research. The study aimed to reveal the factors that affect the naming of rural settlements in the village administrative areas in the Bayramören (Çankırı) district. Literature was evaluated that could help determine the origin of rural settlement names in village administrative areas. Besides, trips and observations were made and information was also obtained from mukhtar and residents. As a result of the study, it was determined that 34% of 74 rural settlements in the Bayramören district are related to human geography, 31% to place, direction, and location, and 27% to natural geography features.