Gaziantep is a city in the south east of Turkey a few miles to the Syrian border.
The city was formerly called Antep or Aintab, but when the citizens of Aintab defended themselves against the French army with courage the Turkish Parliament decided to give the city the title gazi, which means war veteran or war hero. Thus the name changed to Gaziayntab, meaning "Ayntab the war hero". In 1928 the name changed once more to Gaziantep.
There are many theories about the origin and the meaning of the name of this city.
According to Badr ad Din al Ayni (al-Ayni is an abbreviation for al-Ayntabi), a famous Islamical scholar and historian who was born in Ayntab in 1360 the ancient name of Ayntab was Qala al Fusus, which means ring castle. There was a tyrant ruler, who oppresed the people of this city. The name of this ruler was Ayni. After a long time of him oppressing the poor and weak he repented. So the people started saying: “Ayni repented!” Which in arabic is: “Ayni tab!” After a while the people of other cities refered to this city as Aynitab. So the name of the city became Aynitab.
In the Hittite language the name of this city was Hantap. When the Islamic army during the time of the Second Khalifa Umar ibn al-Khattab conquered the city and its surrounding with its beautiful springs and lakes, they called it bright spring, which in arabic is Ayntab.