Bercin - a man's name or a woman's name?

Hi again!

I have to reply to an email by someone called Bercin (from Turkey). Is that a man or a woman's name? I don't know if I should say dear Mr X or dear Ms X! And to use the given name doesn't seem right! Any idea?

Thanks a lot!

One way to try to answer such questions is to search for the name in Google images.

What you see is that Bercin can be first name or a surname. It looks like as a first name, it is a woman's name. By the way, it may really be Berçin.

Hmm. I just tried Facebook. Berçin is mostly a surname, but I found both men & women with it as a first name. Bercin (without the cedilla) got me the same results--mostly a woman's first name, but there were a few men.

Can you do a search on the full name os is Bercin all you have?

I found a way to get around it. There is a very formal word sayin. It means "esteemed" but has the virtue of being gender nuetral.

Sayin Bercin Amir is "Dear Mr/Ms Amir."

Bercin is a woman's name, extremely rare as a man's name. Still use her (%1 his) surname to address if it is a formal letter.

Thank you for your research, nutrax, and thanks for the info, comicstring!