Category·Nature and landscape·165 surnames
Sky, sun, moon and stars
- Surnames
- 165
- in this dictionary
- Most common
- Yıldız
How did these surnames come about?
Ülker is the Turkish name for the star cluster known in English as the Pleiades. The word is attested in Old Turkic sources and is today both a surname and a given name. On its own it shows how old the vocabulary behind this hub is.
The core words
Yıldız (star), gök (sky), ay (moon), gün (sun, day) and tan (dawn) are among the oldest words in Turkish. Yıldız is now a very frequent surname: in TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Yıldız ranks 5th nationally with 697,080 bearers. Güneş, “sun”, ranks 29th on the same list with 227,203. For güneş, dictionaries point to a link with gün; the details of that link vary between sources.
Tan is the first light in the sky at daybreak. Gök means both “sky” and “blue”; the second sense is handled with the colours. Ay is both the moon and the calendar month. Şafak, “dawn twilight”, is of Arabic origin and joins this hub in that sense.
Compounds
Sky words combine with one another or with colours. Ayyıldız sets moon and star side by side. Akyıldız is “white star”, and Aygün joins ay with gün. Vowel harmony is not required across the seam: in Ayyıldız the back a meets the ı of yıldız, and in Aygün back and front vowels stand together.
One caution. Some names beginning in Ay- and Gök- do not name a celestial body at all; they continue old Turkic personal-name patterns. Ayhan, Gökhan and Gökalp therefore go to the Turkic name-elements hub, not here. In Gökdemir or Göksu, gök means “blue”, and the hub follows the final noun.
1934 and the deadline
The first article of the Surname Regulation, in its 1934 text, required everyone without a surname to choose one by July 1936 and have it written into the population register and birth certificates. The regulation also allowed a surname to be used alone or with “(oğlu)”. Sky words such as Yıldız and Güneş mostly appear in the registers bare, without a suffix.
Why it is interesting
Celestial words had been used in Turkic personal names for centuries. Ay, Gün and Yıldız occurred in given names long before the Surname Law. Their move into surnames in 1934 can be seen as an old naming stock taking on a new job. Yıldırım, despite its resemblance to yıldız, is a weather word and sits in that hub.
Which of them are most common?
All surnames in this category
| # | Surname | Meaning | Origin | Rank | Letters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Yıldız | star | Turkic | 5 | 6 |
| 02 | Güneş | sun | Turkic | 29 | 5 |
| 03 | Acun | world, universe | Other | – | 4 |
| 04 | Akay | white, bright moon | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 05 | Akgün | bright, happy day | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 06 | Akyıldız | bright white star | Turkic | – | 8 |
| 07 | Altan | golden; red dawn | Mongolic | – | 5 |
| 08 | Altınay | golden moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 09 | Altunay | golden moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 10 | Anjum | stars | Arabic | – | 5 |
| 11 | Atagün | ancestors’ day | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 12 | Atay | moon of the ancestors | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 13 | Ay | moon | Turkic | – | 2 |
| 14 | Ayata | moon grandfather | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 15 | Ayaydın | bright as the moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 16 | Aybar | majesty; moon-bright | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 17 | Aybay | moon-bright, wealthy lord | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 18 | Aycan | dear moon | Persian | – | 5 |
| 19 | Ayçiçek | moon-flower; sunflower | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 20 | Ayda | moon name | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 21 | Aydan | from the moon, moon-bright | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 22 | Aydar | male name; ay-name or a form of Haydar | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 23 | Aydemir | moon-bright and iron-strong | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 24 | Aydeniz | moonlit sea | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 25 | Aydilek | moon + wish | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 26 | Aydoğan | born like the moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 27 | Aydoğdu | “the moon has risen” | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 28 | Aydoğmuş | born like the moon | Turkic | – | 8 |
| 29 | Aydos | moon-friend; hill and mountain name | Persian | – | 5 |
| 30 | Aygören | one who sees the moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 31 | Aygül | moon rose | Persian | – | 5 |
| 32 | Aygün | day bright as the moon | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 33 | Aygüneş | moon and sun | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 34 | Ayhan | moon-bright khan | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 35 | Aykal | stay like the moon | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 36 | Aykan | of moon-pure blood, noble | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 37 | Aykanat | moon-bright wing | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 38 | Aykoç | moon + ram | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 39 | Aykurt | moon wolf | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 40 | Ayla | lunar halo | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 41 | Ayman | auspicious; or moon-fair | Arabic | – | 5 |
| 42 | Ayoğlu | son of Ay (‘moon’) | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 43 | Aypar | piece of the moon; moonlight | Persian | – | 5 |
| 44 | Aysal | moon-like, lunar | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 45 | Aysan | beautiful as the moon | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 46 | Aysu | moon water | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 47 | Aytaç | moon-crowned | Persian | – | 5 |
| 48 | Aytan | moon and dawn | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 49 | Aytaş | moonstone | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 50 | Aytekin | moon prince | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 51 | Aytemiz | pure as the moon | Arabic | – | 7 |
| 52 | Aytemür | moon iron (old form of Aydemir) | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 53 | Ayten | moon-bodied, moon-skinned | Persian | – | 5 |
| 54 | Aytuğ | moon banner | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 55 | Ayverdi | given by the Moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 56 | Ayyıldız | crescent and star | Turkic | – | 8 |
| 57 | Bedir | full moon | Arabic | – | 5 |
| 58 | Bedirhan | lord full moon | Turkic | – | 8 |
| 59 | Berkay | strong moon | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 60 | Betil | meteorite; a form of Betül | – | 5 | |
| 61 | Binay | a thousand moons; radiant | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 62 | Büyükburç | great tower; great sign | Arabic | – | 9 |
| 63 | Cihan | world, universe | Persian | – | 5 |
| 64 | Çayan | scorpion | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 65 | Çelikay | bright as steel | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 66 | Çolpan | Venus, the Shepherd’s Star | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 67 | Demiray | firm as iron, bright as the moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 68 | Doğanay | rising moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 69 | Doğar | rises, is born | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 70 | Doğu | east, sunrise | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 71 | Dolunay | full moon | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 72 | Elgün | sun of the homeland | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 73 | Eray | moon-bright hero | Turkic | – | 4 |
| 74 | Ergün | early-rising sun | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 75 | Ergüney | brave one + south | Turkic | – | 7 |
| 76 | Evren | universe, cosmos | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 77 | Feray | moonlight, gleam of the moon | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 78 | Gençay | young moon | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 79 | Gök | sky; blue | Turkic | – | 3 |
| 80 | Gökalp | hero of the sky | Turkic | – | 6 |
| 81 | Gökay | the moon in the sky | Turkic | – | 5 |
| 82 | Gökbakar | one who looks at the sky | Turkic | – | 8 |
| 83 | Gökberk | sky-strong | Turkic | – | 7 |
Common questions
- What does Ülker mean?
Ülker is the Turkish name of the Pleiades star cluster and is attested in Old Turkic sources.
- How common is the surname Yıldız?
In TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Yıldız is Türkiye's 5th most common surname, with 697,080 bearers.
- Why is Gökhan not in this hub?
Gökhan continues an old Turkic personal-name pattern rather than naming a celestial body, so it belongs to the Turkic name-elements hub.
Sources
- 1Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK Güncel Türkçe Sözlük
- 2Sevan Nişanyan, Nişanyan Sözlük
- 3T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr), Soyadı Nizamnamesi (Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı 2/1759)
- 4Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) · ADNKS, TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS)