What is "kipchaks"

The Kipchak (also spelled Qipchaq,Kypchak, Kupchak, Kıpçak, or Qıpçaq) were a Turkic nomadic people. Originating in the Kimek Khanate, they conquered large parts of the Eurasian steppe during the Turkic expansion of the 11th and 12th centuries together with the Cumans, and were in turn conquered by the Mongol invasions of the early 13th century. The Cuman-Kipchak confederation was a predecessor of the Kazakh Khanate and, later, modern-day Kazakhstan.

The Kipchaks described their name as meaning 'hollow tree', as it was, according to them, inside a hollow tree that their original human ancestress gave birth to her son.

Their name appears occasionally transliterated in other languages, such as , Qifjāq; , Qabčāq/Qabcâq; , Qivçaqebi; ; , , Qıpçaq; , Қипчоқ/قىپچاق; , Qipchaq/Қипчақ; , Qıpşaq; , Qıpçaq; , Qıpçaq; Nogai: Кыпчак; , Qīnchá.

They are called Polovtsy in Russian and Ukrainian and similar names in other Slavic languages.