Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

Category·Lineage, place and name patterns·326 surnames

Names of mountains, rivers and places

Surnames
326
in this dictionary
In the national top 30
0
ADNKS 2025

How did these surnames come about?

The name Fırat is far older than Turkish. Greek sources call the river Euphrates, and that form is generally traced to an older Mesopotamian name. Turkish took it over as Fırat, and after 1934 it also entered the civil registers as a surname. This hub gathers names of that kind: surnames that carry the proper name of a specific mountain, river, lake, region or settlement, with no suffix added.

How they formed

Nature words were popular choices in the surname years: dağ 'mountain', deniz 'sea', kaya 'rock'. A proper place name goes one step further. Instead of 'mountain', a family chose the name of one mountain; instead of 'river', the name of one river. Neither Law No. 2525 nor the Surname Regulation banned place names. Md. 5 of the Regulation said new surnames were to be taken from the Turkish language, and place names long settled in Turkish were part of that language.

The reason behind any single choice is usually unknown. A link between a family and the place its surname names can be stated only with documentation. This page is about the words and their history, not about where bearers come from.

Examples

  • Toros: the mountain range of southern Anatolia. The name rests on ancient Tauros; its deeper origin is debated.
  • Erciyes: the volcanic mountain of central Anatolia, called Argaios in antiquity. The Turkish form descends from that name.
  • Ilgaz: a mountain and a district in northern Anatolia. Several explanations of the name circulate; no dictionary settles it.
  • Uludağ: ulu 'great, lofty' + dağ 'mountain', the mountain above Bursa. It is a compound in structure, but as a surname it is first the proper name of a mountain.
  • Fırat: the river described above.
  • Dicle: the Arabic-derived name of the river the Greeks called Tigris. Both forms go back to an older name.
  • Aras: the river recorded in ancient sources as Araxes.
  • Tuna: the Turkish name of the Danube, linked to the same old root as Latin Danubius and German Donau.

Most of these names come from languages spoken in the region before Turkish. Turkish adopted them centuries ago and fitted them to its own sound system. The origin of the word and the reason a family chose it are therefore two separate questions.

Where the category stops

Suffixed forms such as Trabzonlu or Konyalı belong to the hub for -lı/-li place surnames. Common nouns stay out as well: Dağ and Deniz sit in the nature categories. Kocaeli is a compound in structure (koca 'great' + eli 'its land'), but as a surname it is first a place name, so it counts here, as does Karaman. Altay is the name of a mountain range and also a given name; the origin of the word is debated.

What is interesting

These surnames show how Turkish turns geography into vocabulary. An ancient mountain name, Argaios, now lives on as the surname Erciyes. It is a small, clear case of a name passing from one language into the next.

Sources1,2,3,4

All surnames in this category

#SurnameMeaningOriginLetters
01 Abadan prosperous, flourishing Persian 6
02 Adıyaman from Adıyaman (province) 8
03 Akardere flowing stream Persian 8
04 Akbulak white spring Turkic 7
05 Akçadağ whitish mountain; town in Malatya Turkic 7
06 Akdeniz the Mediterranean Turkic 7
07 Akkerman White Fortress (the city of Akkerman) Turkic 8
08 Akkuş white bird Turkic 5
09 Akseki district in Antalya 6
10 Aksu clear water, white water Turkic 4
11 Aktuna white + Tuna (Tunga) Turkic 6
12 Akyazı white plain; district of Sakarya Turkic 6
13 Alaca piebald, multicoloured Turkic 5
14 Aladağ mottled mountain Turkic 6
15 Alanyalıoğlu son of the man from Alanya Other 12
16 Alasya Alashiya, ancient name of Cyprus 6
17 Alpsakarya hero of the Sakarya Greek 10
18 Alpuğan mighty hero Turkic 7
19 Altay the Altai mountains; given name Turkic 5
20 Altaylar the Altays; the Altay family Turkic 8
21 Altaylı from the Altai Turkic 7
22 Altındağ golden mountain; a district of Ankara Turkic 8
23 Altınköprü golden bridge; a town in Iraq Turkic 10
24 Altınoluk town in Edremit Turkic 9
25 Altınordu the Golden Horde Turkic 9
26 Altınova golden plain; a district of Yalova Turkic 8
27 Altıntaş golden stone Turkic 8
28 Anadol short form of Anadolu (Anatolia) Greek 6
29 Anapa the town of Anapa 5
30 Andican the city of Andijan 7
31 Ankara the capital of Türkiye Greek 6
32 Araç the district of Araç (Kastamonu) Turkic 4
33 Aral island Turkic 4
34 Ararat Mount Ararat Armenian 6
35 Aras the Aras river Other 4
36 Arasoğlu son of Aras Persian 8
37 Araz the river Aras Persian 4
38 Arda Arda River; marker stake Other 4
39 Ardahanlı from Ardahan Other 9
40 Arnaz mountain name near Van 5
41 Arvas Arvas (place in Van) 5
42 Asya Asia; a form of Asiye Greek 4
43 Aşkenazi of Ashkenaz Other 8
44 Atabey Seljuk title: tutor-regent of princes Turkic 6
45 Avcılar the hunters Turkic 7
46 Aydos moon-friend; hill and mountain name Persian 5
47 Aydoslu from Aydos Greek 7
48 Ayvalı with quince trees Persian 6
49 Azak Oghuz bey’s name; Azov Turkic 4
50 Babadağ place name: baba + dağ Turkic 7
51 Bağdaş cross-legged sitting Turkic 6
52 Bağdat the city of Baghdad Persian 6
53 Bağlar vineyards Persian 6
54 Bahçeli with a garden Persian 7
55 Balkan wooded mountain range; the Balkans Turkic 6
56 Barkan land named in the Oghuz epic Turkic 6
57 Bartın Bartın, Black Sea province and river Greek 6
58 Başkent capital city Other 7
59 Başoda principal room of the house Turkic 6
60 Batman old weight unit; place name Persian 6
61 Batum the city of Batumi Other 5
62 Batumlu from Batum (Batumi) Other 7
63 Bayındır Oghuz tribe name; prosperous Turkic 8
64 Baykal name of Lake Baikal Turkic 6
65 Baykan wealthy lord; old Turkish name Turkic 6
66 Baykent rich town Other 7
67 Bayramlı festive; a village name Turkic 8
68 Bebek baby Turkic 5
69 Belek swaddling cloth; gift (female name) Turkic 5
70 Belen mountain pass Turkic 5
71 Beyazıt name of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid Persian 7
72 Beyoğlu son of the bey Turkic 7
73 Bilican a mountain in Muş 7
74 Binboğa a thousand bulls (place name) Turkic 7
75 Bingöl a thousand lakes (place name) Turkic 6
76 Bingölçe little Bingöl, “thousand lakes” Turkic 8
77 Bitlis Bitlis, province in eastern Anatolia 6
78 Bolayır township near Gelibolu Greek 7
79 Bolkent town of plenty Other 7
80 Bor Bor, a town in Niğde Greek 3
81 Boşnak Bosniak Other 6
82 Bozdağ grey mountain Turkic 6
The list grows as surnames are added to the dictionary.

Common questions

Are surnames like Fırat or Toros Turkish words?

They are proper names long settled in Turkish, but their roots are older: Fırat goes back to Euphrates, Toros to ancient Tauros.

Does a family called Erciyes come from near that mountain?

The surname does not show that. The reason for the choice is usually unknown, and a link between family and place needs documentation.

Why is Konyalı not in this category?

Because it adds -lı to the place name. Suffixed forms have their own -lı/-li hub; this one holds only bare names.

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 Kanunu (Kanun No. 2525)
  4. 4T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr), Soyadı Nizamnamesi (Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı 2/1759)