Category talk:İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca

Name-surname

There may be people with the surname "Hoca". However, İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca certainly did not have that surname. Simply because he died in 1926, before the Turkish Surname Law of 1934. Having said that, "İskilipli" is not his "first" or "given" name either. As in pre-1934 Turkey there were no surnames people used -sort of to say- "nicknames" to separate people. These would include physical features like Kara (brunet), or Sarı (blond), Kel (bald), Uzun (tall) or places of birth like "İskilipli" which means "born in" or "known to be from" İskilip. "Hoca" was a title of respect for scholars, still used today, although informally, for academicians and senior teachers. In the case of this gentleman, I guess, "Mehmed" (old) or "Mehmet" (new) was his given name and Atıf probably the name of his father. (Officially people were registered with the name of their father, in the lack of a surname; and some women changed that name to the name of her husband at marriage.)

Conclusion: We have no right to "invent" surnames for people who do not have one. We must create a special cat for people without surnames, and I'm pretty sure it would not be limited to pre-1934 Turkey. --E4024 (talk) 19:03, 20 February 2019 (UTC)