Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

Category group·78 surnames

Colours and numbers

Surnames
78
in this dictionary
In the national top 30
24
ADNKS 2025
Most common
Kara
People
290,0244
Kara

How did these surnames come about?

Colour and number words rarely stand alone in surnames. They usually sit in front of another word. In Karakaya, kara qualifies the noun after it; in Kırkgöz, kırk does the same. So this group grows along two paths: words used on their own, such as Kara or Tek, and the hundreds of compounds in which they are the first element.

Two subgroups

Colours. Words such as kara (black), ak (white), kızıl and al (red), sarı (yellow), boz (grey), gök (blue) and yeşil (green). Most come from Old Turkic. The most common example is Kara: in TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Kara ranks 16th nationally with 290,024 bearers. Colour words of Arabic origin, such as esmer (dark-complexioned), belong here too.

Numbers and quantity. Words such as tek (single), ikiz (twin), birinci (first) and çifte (double), and compounds such as Üçok and Kırkgöz. Rank names such as Onbaşı, Yüzbaşı and Binbaşı contain numbers as well and are linked to this hub with a secondary tag.

Primary and secondary tags

The key rule of the group is this: a compound that begins with a colour belongs primarily to the hub of its final noun. Akdoğan is a bird name, Sarıgül a flower name. The colour element is recorded as a secondary tag. The colours hub therefore has few primary members and many secondary ones. The numbers hub works the same way.

Shape

Colour words are short and mostly one syllable: ak, al, boz, gök. That brevity makes them ideal first elements in compounds. Forms with -çA, such as Akça, soften the colour: “whitish”.

The 1934 setting

Article 14 of the Surname Regulation, in its 1934 text, required that when unrelated families in one place chose the same name, the later one change it, and if they refused, be distinguished by an adjective such as büyük or küçük. Colour adjectives are not the ones named in that article. Their function is similar, though: to set one name apart from another.

Why it is interesting

Colour and number surnames show best how the hubs connect. To understand one surname you often need two pages: one for the head word and one for the first element.

Sources1,2,3,4

Which categories make up this group?

  • Colours392 surnames

    Surnames from colour words: black (kara), white (ak), red (kızıl, al), yellow (sarı), grey (boz), sky blue (gök) and green. In Old Turkic, colours could also convey direction, strength or nobility, yet which sense is meant in a given surname is not stated without a source. In compounds the head noun is assessed separately, and the colour element is also listed on its affix page.

  • Numbers and quantity69 surnames

    Surnames containing numbers and quantity words: single, twin, three, forty, hundred and thousand. These usually appear inside compounds such as Üçok and Kırkgöz or inside rank names such as Onbaşı, Yüzbaşı and Binbaşı, so most members of the hub arrive through a secondary tag.

Which of them are most common?

  1. 16 Kara 290,024
  2. 24 Çakır 235,286
Members in the national top 30, people (TÜİK ADNKS 2025).

All surnames in this group

#SurnameMeaningOriginRankLetters
01 Kara black, dark; dark-haired Turkic 16 4
02 Çakır grey-blue (of eyes) Turkic 24 5
03 Ağca whitish, pale Turkic – 4
04 Ak white; pure Turkic – 2
05 Akbağ white bond, or white vineyard Turkic – 5
06 Akça whitish; silver coin Turkic – 4
07 Akçal white-speckled; white rocky hill Turkic – 5
08 Akçıl whitish, faded Turkic – 5
09 Akmen white, pure Turkic – 5
10 Akoğlu son of Ak Turkic – 6
11 Al crimson, red Turkic – 2
12 Alaca piebald, multicoloured Turkic – 5
13 Alkır red and grey Turkic – 5
14 Altıkat six layers, six storeys Turkic – 7
15 Apak snow-white Turkic – 4
16 Arsal yellowish horse colour Turkic – 5
17 Azrak blue Arabic – 5
18 Bayaz white Arabic – 5
19 Beşok five arrows Turkic – 5
20 Beştaş five stones; the five-stone game Turkic – 6
21 Beyaz white Arabic – 5
22 Beyazoğlu white + son of Arabic – 9
23 Bir one, single Turkic – 3
24 Birer one each Turkic – 5
25 Birinci first, foremost Turkic – 7
26 Boya paint, dye Turkic – 4
27 Boz grey, dun Turkic – 3
28 Bozoğlu son of Boz (“grey”) Turkic – 7
29 Bütün whole, complete Turkic – 5
30 Büyükak great and white (pure) Turkic – 7
31 Çağan white; pure Mongolic – 5
32 Çakırca bluish, grey-eyed Turkic – 7
33 Ekiz twin Turkic – 4
34 Ekizoğlu son of the twin Turkic – 8
35 Elvan colours, many-coloured Arabic – 5
36 Gökçe bluish; lovely Turkic – 5
37 Gökçen sky-blue; lovely Turkic – 6
38 Göknil sky blue Persian – 6
39 Gülgün rose-coloured Persian – 6
40 Gürak abundantly pure Turkic – 5
41 Ilk first Turkic – 3
42 İkiz twin Turkic – 4
43 İkizoğlu son of the twin Turkic – 8
44 İlkel primitive, original Turkic – 5
45 İlkin at first, first of all Turkic – 5
46 Karalar the black ones; the Kara family Turkic – 7
47 Karaoğlu son of Kara Turkic – 8
48 Kırca greyish, grizzled Turkic – 5
49 Kırmızı red Arabic – 7
50 Kızıl bright red Turkic – 5
51 Kızılca reddish Turkic – 7
52 Koşut parallel Turkic – 5
53 Kula dun (horse colour); Kula Turkic – 4
54 Kulaç fathom, arm span; swimming stroke Turkic – 5
55 Kumral light-brown-haired Turkic – 6
56 Mavi blue Arabic – 4
57 Mor purple Armenian – 3
58 Otuzbiroğlu thirty-one + -oğlu Turkic – 11
59 Özbir one at heart; unique Turkic – 5
60 Özçivit true indigo Turkic – 7
61 Özgökçe pure sky-blue; lovely Turkic – 7
62 Özkara pure black, dark Turkic – 6
63 Penbe pink Persian – 5
64 Sarı yellow; fair-haired Turkic – 4
65 Sarıca yellowish Turkic – 6
66 Sarıer fair-haired man Turkic – 6
67 Tek single, unique, one and only Turkic – 3
68 Toğuz nine Turkic – 5
69 Toptan wholesale; all together Turkic – 6
70 Tüm whole, complete Turkic – 3
71 Üçer three each Turkic – 4
72 Üçgün three days Turkic – 5
73 Üçüncü third Turkic – 6
74 Yeşil green Turkic – 5
75 Yeşilmen of the green Turkic – 8
76 Yeşilöz green valley; green at heart Turkic – 7
77 Yirmibeş twenty-five Turkic – 8
78 Yüzer a hundred each, or swims Turkic – 5
Rank: TÜİK ADNKS 2025 national top 30. The list grows as surnames are added to the dictionary.4

Common questions

Is Akdoğan in the colours hub?

Not primarily. Its meaning rests on the final doğan, so it is filed with the birds; the ak element links it to colours as a secondary tag.

Which colour surname is most common?

Among the top thirty surnames in TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Kara is the only bare colour word, ranking 16th with 290,024 bearers.

Sources

  1. 1Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK Güncel Türkçe Sözlük
  2. 2Sevan Nişanyan, Nişanyan Sözlük
  3. 3T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr), Soyadı Nizamnamesi (Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı 2/1759)
  4. 4Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) · ADNKS, TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS)