So, I recently discovered a grandmother with a seemingly "Turkish" maiden name, but haven't been able to get any farther back than her father, and she is the last one with that last name in my family. The last name is Benyek, with a couple alternate spellings, but when I asked a professor of mine who speaks fluent Turkish, they informed me that the most common spelling I've found in the records means a spot or a blemish. After a little digging I found this last name was most commonly found in the Western Armenian provinces within the modern Turkish borders, leading me to some other information about the word being used as a derogatory term towards Armenians. I also know she had left the Ottoman Empire before the Genocide, being born in the 1840's, and having children in another European country, so either she or her family emigrated before the 1910's. This would mean that a family member was probably given this last name, as opposed to being registered with it via the surname law under the republic. Obviously, it doesn't have the common -ian/-yan ending that many Armenian names have, but I'm curious if she and her family may have been Armenians, as I've heard of the Ottomans giving some Armenians offensive/derogatory surnames before. It's not very much, but I'm also surprised because her first name was Maria, which strikes me as unlikely to be a common Turkish given name. If anyone knows more about Armenian/Turkified Armenian surnames than me, I would really appreciate some enlightenment, or a direction to look next!