# liguistic meaning of surname "Balderes"



## pudge

I'm wondering if anyone can find out the meaning/language origins of my name "Balderes". 

My father is Greek (moved to USA when he was ~10 years old). His father (my Papu) grew up in Turkey near Istanbul. I'm told that our name (Balderes) was adopted by my great grandfather in order to assimilate to Turkish society. I'm also told that the name may mean "strong legs" or something like that in Turkish. My great grand father may have been a miller by trade.

Anyone have any linguistic thoughts about the name "Balderes" given the above info? 

Thank your for any input.


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## Rallino

*Baldır* is the calf of your leg, that is still in use in modern Turkish. Balderes doesn't ring any bells; though I googled and in a bunch of cities there is a district called *Baldere* (lit. honeyriver). I doubt it has any relations with _balderes_ though.


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## tzesyneas

I thing that there is a Turkish surname 'Baldere' but ı'm not sure. If this is true  it is the same surname. The -s suffix is used in Greek for masculine gender in Nominative form. It is possible that your grandfather took the Turkish surname Baldere and then in Greek it became Balderes in order to seem more greek witch is very common for many other surnames in Greece. Maybe the surname has  more to do with a district close to a river called baldere. I have heard many old people in Greece calling rivers with their turkish names using the -s suffix to much it with the other words.


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## shiningstar

Hi,

I don't know much about Greek language but I think we can translate "balderes" as "baldır*lı" *(which can mean having strong lower-legs)"*,* though I may be wrong.


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## tzesyneas

shiningstar said:


> Hi,
> 
> I don't know much about Greek language but I think we can translate "balderes" as "baldır*lı" *(which can mean having strong lower-legs)"*,* though I may be wrong.



      I gave it another thought after shiningstar’s reply. I thing it may be right and it makes more sense. I also have found the Greek surname ΜΠΑΛΝΤΙΡΗΣ ( BALDIRIS) and I suppose that it was written as BALDERES  where i=e.  And it seems to mean ‘baldırlı’ with (strong) calfs. Sorry for the first reply...


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## baldir

Tsezineas hello! I am the 'ΜΠΑΛΝΤΙΡΗΣ' that you have found!!! my name is Nick Baldiris! in greek language the sound ''e'' is written as ''i'' so Baldiris or Balderes are identical. Pudge and I are relatives for sure,because my grandfather too came from west Turkey about 80 years ago. He lived in the region of Canakkale, and he had told me that his village,named Reggio or sth like that, was near the beach and he could see the greek island of Lesvos by naked eye! The buffalos swam from Lesvos to Canakkale! I had met a woman that new the turkish language and told me that the word baldir or balder means the femur!It is a turkish name of course. 
In 1922 after the end of war between turkey and greece there were big population movements. i have read that in 1922 1.5. million greeks moved from turkey to greece and 0.6 millions turks left greece to turkey , so as the populations would consist of one nation, and this would bring peace. Moreover, my father told me that when my grandfather reached greece he was thinking of moving to America, as Pudge's grandfather did, but finally he decided to stay in Greece! 
My email address is kerveros1982@hotmail.com
Pudge, i would like to talk to you as we may be cousins!! if someone of the Turk-friends in this site knows where Reggio is, i would like to know,please! Greetings to all of you!


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## pudge

Hi Nick!  Great to hear from you.  I emailed you at the email address you posted a few days ago.  Let me know if you did not receive it.

-Kirk ("Pudge") Balderes


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