This is the Portuguese word for turkey (as in the bird, not the Mediterranean country). It's derived from the name of the country in South America. To make things worse, this can also be used as a slang term for penis. Definitely not a name I would use!
No kid would be laughed in Spain or the Basque Country because of being named Peru (PÉH-ruh). North Americans tend to assume all kind of nonsensical things about foreign names without thinking about the context in which they are actually used.