Osman

Osman is the Turkish rendering of the Arabic Uthman, borne first by the third caliph of Islam and a close companion of the Prophet. Its second life came with Osman I, the Anatolian chieftain whose small thirteenth-century beylik grew into the dynasty — and the empire — that carried his name across the Balkans, the Levant, and North Africa for six hundred years. The sound is plain and grounded: an open vowel, a firm closing consonant, no ornament. It remains among the most common men's names in Turkey. Osman wears the patina of chronicles without ever sounding costumed.