As Americans prepare to sit down for a national day of feasting Thursday, what some of us may be wondering is, why is our Thanksgiving bird named after a Middle Eastern nation?

Blame it on the Portuguese.

But just to show that we’re almost all in the same muddled linguistic boat, their word for turkey is peru.

Let’s start at the beginning. There are six sub-species of turkeys worldwide, all native to North America. The star of the feast at American Thanksgiving dinners is Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo, which comes from Mexico, and was domesticated there possibly as early as 800 BCE. By the time Columbus arrived, the Aztecs were raising and eating turkeys by the tens of thousands, and had even incorporated