Turkeys are indigenous to the United States and Mexico; in fact, Europeans only first came into
contact with turkeys roughly 500 years ago, upon discovery of the New World. So how did turkeys
(the bird) end up being named so similarly to Turkey (the country)?

As far as is known, the first European explorers to discover (and eat) turkey were those in Hernando
Cortez’s expedition in Mexico in 1519. This new delicacy was brought back to Europe by Spanish
Conquistadors and by 1524, had reached England. The bird was domesticated in England within a
decade, and by the turn of the century, it’s name — “turkey” — had entered the English language.
Case in point: William Shakespeare used the term in Twelfth Night, believed to be written in 1601
or 1602. The lack of context around his usage suggests that the term had widespread reach.

But the birds did not come directly from the New World to England; rather, they came via merchant
ships from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Those merchants were called “Turkey merchants” as much
the area was part of the Turkish Empire at the time. Purchasers of the birds back in England
thought the fowl came from the area, hence the name “Turkey birds” or, soon thereafter, “turkeys.”