Growing up, Funda Nakkasoglu wondered why she couldn’t have a “normal” name.
Hers was certainly an unusual one in Hampton, Australia, a small, chic suburb outside of Melbourne.
Her father and mother, Can and Meneske, chose her name for a few reasons.
They liked the sound of it. They liked that “Australians were able to read and pronounce it correctly at the first attempt”: FOON-da.
They also liked how it was derived from nature. Funda is a bushy plant with purple flowers native to Anatolia, the peninsula which makes up most of Can’s home nation of Turkey.