<P> The English name Turkey, now applied to the modern Republic of Turkey, is historically derived (via Old French Turquie) from the Medieval Latin Turchia, Turquia; and Greek Τουρκία . It is first recorded in Middle English (as Turkye, Torke, later Turkie, Turky), attested in Chaucer, ca . 1369 . The Ottoman Empire was commonly referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its contemporaries . </P> <P> The name of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) means "land of the Turks". Middle English usage of Turkye is attested to in an early work by Chaucer called The Book of the Duchess (c. 1369). The phrase land of Torke is used in the 15th - century Digby Mysteries . Later usages can be found in the Dunbar poems, the 16th century Manipulus Vocabulorum ("Turkie, Tartaria") and Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum (Turky). The modern spelling "Turkey" dates back to at least 1719 . </P> <P> On 29 October 1923, upon the country declaring a Republic, Turkey adopted its official name, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, known in English as the Republic of Turkey . </P> <P> The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks (Celestial Turks) of Central Asia (c . AD 735). The Turkic self - designation Türk is attested to reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century AD . A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan ." </P>

Where does the country turkey get its name