Which surnames are most commonly used by Turks? What is the meaning of these surnames? Since when is it mandatory to have a surname in Turkey?
History
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was the man who turned Turkey into a modern country. He introduced important reforms. One of these reforms was making surnames mandatory. In June 1934, everyone was obliged to take a surname. Mustafa Kemal was then the only one given the surname Atatürk, which means father of the Turks.
The most common Turkish surnames
Yılmaz is the most common Turkish surname. Below you can see the full top 5.
- Yılmaz
- Kaya
- Demir
- Şahin
- Çelik
These surnames are also used as first names. For example, a famous Turkish actor is called Yılmaz Erdoğan, while another famous Turkish actor is called Cem Yılmaz.
What is also striking about these 5 surnames is their meaning. The most common surnames all have a meaning that has to do with strength. Below you can see the meaning of the surnames.
- Yılmaz = go-getter
- Kaya = rock
- Demir = iron
- Şahin = hawk
- Çelik = steel
Other Turkish surnames
Other common surnames
Naturally, there are many more surnames than the 5 already discussed. Other common surnames include Yıldırım, Yıldız, Aslan, Arslan, Aydın, Doğan, Kara, Kılıç, Koç, Kurt, Özkan, Şimşek, Çetin and Tekin.
Another common surname is Öztürk, which means true Turk. Those who had not chosen a surname when the law came into effect were all given the surname Öztürk. That is why there are many people with this surname.
Prefixes and suffixes
Many Turkish surnames have a prefix or a suffix. Well-known conjunctions are öz, er, kara and el.
- Öz means ,real,.
- Er means ,man, and ,soldier,.
- Kara means ,dark,.
- El means ,hand,.
In this way, surnames such as Eryılmaz, Özdemir, Karakaya, Demirel and Şahiner were created in the past.
Oglu
A special suffix is oğlu, which means son of. This suffix is common in Turkish surnames. For example, Bakkalcıoğlu means the grocer’s son.
Some Greeks have a surname that ends in ,oglou’,. These are originally Anatolian Greeks who had to change their surname during the Ottoman rule.