The appearance of proper names in film naming

This study examines the cultural patterns embedded in proper names used across 7,999 Turkish film titles through comprehensive corpus analysis. The aim of this article is to determine the most frequent proper names, the number of proper names, the distribution of proper names by genres, and the prominent proper names in proper name types in 7,999 full-length film titles of Turkish movies between 1917 and 2021. Due to the size and specificity of the data in the study, a corpus-based approach was preferred. As a result of the study, it was determined that the most frequently used type of proper name in Turkish film titles is the personal name, and the most frequent number of these names were identified. In addition, the types of proper names found in film titles such as place names, astronomical features, ethnic and social groups, deities, buildings, and more were found and identified. Proper names in Turkish film titles were found to reflect various elements of Turkish social life. For example, while in some film genres the influence of Islam is expressed in the proper names, in other genres the historical cultural heritage of the Turks comes to the fore in the proper names. The study establishes an empirical foundation for comparative research on onomastic practices in national cinemas worldwide.