The simple, plain and unknown name...Berk! :)

When I was little I really liked my name and I was ok with it because people in Turkey were able to pronounce it right and it didn’t bother me. I always thought that the Turkish pronunciation of my name was how it’s actually said and in Turkey my name is as simple as a plain white shirt and as easy to spell as ABC, I also think that it is comforting to the ear. I think it sounds just right. But when I moved out of Turkey to Jakarta, the people there couldn’t pronounce my name at all. I was quite annoyed at the start because the sound that they pronounced my name in was pretty irritating in my opinion, every time I heard my name those days I felt really embarrassed and the fact that people couldn’t spell it was quite upsetting and humorous at the same time. People spelled Bourke or Burke and some others but I taught them how to spell it and slowly started adjusting to it in time, I got over it and felt that if we would be living out of country for a long time, my names pronunciation would have to change and so it did.

Getting used to what my name was did take a long time I felt as if people would tease me because I had a weird name, I didn’t get teased quite a lot but had nicknames such as Berky Turkey and Berk the Turk. But I didn’t really care because I thought that they would get over it sometime. I just kept my mind off it and now I’m really comfortable with my name because I had really worked hard on being ok with it. I may have a name that sounds stupid but the meaning points me to another direction, my name means brave and strong. I’m very proud of that even though it doesn’t reflect my personality. Who knows, maybe deep inside me there is two brave and strong personalities edging closer into my mind.

Well I would have to say there isn’t much of a story behind my name and it’s weird for me to say that my parents simply just….. Named me. There’s only a slight mix-up that happened before I was born. My dad had gone to America and thought that I would be a girl so he bought a lot of girl clothes and came back to Turkey. Soon he realized that all he had bought for me had gone to waste because I turned out a boy, my parents also thought of naming me my sisters name Melis and giving my name to her, but they soon realized that Berk would suit me better. But mostly why I was named Berk was because my parents really liked the meaning of my name and also they had a really close friend named Berk who is a really nice and kind man that my parents really like. It’s pretty cool to know that my name is coming from a very close friend of my parents.
Over the years I have learned to be proud of my name and I have really adjusted to the pronunciation. I guess that shows how brave and strong I am. I feel as if I have really stood up for myself and learned to be proud of my name, I had been able to deal with the wrong pronunciations as well as the teasing that I felt quite upset with. Today I have totally gotten over that and I’m ok with it.

I chose this picture because I thought that my name is simple and my name is the only one, whenever I'm somewhere else other than Turkey. So my name would stand alone and be as simple and easy. Just like a tree!