>One of the stated reasons is that Turkey is homophonic with 'turkey' (the thanksgiving meal), which further has a connotation of 'lousy'. This is 100% real, their current leadership is a bit strange
It's not just a coincidence, the bird was named after Turkey because apparently they were first imported to England via the Middle East and so they were called "Turkey cocks". Other European languages call them literally "India cocks", due to a different import route. So it's a bit silly to change the official name of your country because a bird is named after it.
Oh, that's new information to me. Now I can not wait for Japan to finally change its name (perhaps to Nippon?) to avoid the terrible and vulgar connotation with the Japanese tit..
For a similar issue in Japan check the order of Name and Surname, or Surname and Name in English and Japanese, as it has been officially been swapping a few times.
It's not just a coincidence, the bird was named after Turkey because apparently they were first imported to England via the Middle East and so they were called "Turkey cocks". Other European languages call them literally "India cocks", due to a different import route. So it's a bit silly to change the official name of your country because a bird is named after it.