Question on a Bulgarian name

[Kjetil Rå Hauge]

>Dear friends,
>     An acquaintance asked me if there is an English equivalent for the
>Bulgarian name IOZDZHAN.  I don't think so, but thought I should ask
>this list.  Any help would be appreciated.

The answer is probably "no", but well, it depends. First of all, this
looks like a Turkish name in Bulgarian transcription, and the Turkish
form would be "Özcan". As far as I know, this does not correspond to
any regular dictionary entry in Turkish, but it seems to be a
combination of the morpheme _öz_ 'particular, real; self, essence'
and _can_ 'soul'. The first element seems to be quite popular as a
part of Turkish surnames - off the top of my head I can remember
names like _Öztürk_, _Özsoy_ (soy - 'family, lineage'),
_Özkarde[s,]ler_ (karde[s,]ler - 'brother (pl.)', and there are many
others. But an "English equivalent" - sorry, Turkish and English
surname traditions are just too different for that. Unless you'd
accept _Soulsby_.
--
-- Kjetil Rå Hauge, U. of Oslo. Phone +47/22856710, fax +47/22854140
-- (this msg sent from home, +47/67148424, fax +1/5084372444)

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