Textile and clothing trades

Terzi 'tailor' is a Persian loan. Persian darzī means 'one who sews' and rests on darz 'seam'. In Turkish the word shifted to terzi and became the everyday name for anyone who made clothes. As surnames, Terzi and its -oğlu form Terzioğlu are the best-known members of this hub.

Notice that Terzi carries no -cı. It is a trade word already. In the rest of the group, the Turkish agent suffix does the work.

From cloth to felt

A Dokumacı is a weaver, someone who turns yarn into cloth on a loom. Dokuma 'weaving' comes from the Turkic verb doku- 'to weave'. A Boyacı dyed yarn and cloth; boya 'dye, paint' is Turkic as well. Today the word mostly means a house painter or a shoeshine, and without documents nobody can say which trade lies behind a given surname. A Keçeci made felt, the thick fabric pressed from wool with hot water and soap; keçe is a Turkic word. A Halıcı wove or sold carpets. A Yorgancı sewed quilts and stuffed them with cotton or wool.

Two old trades live on almost only in surnames. A Hallaç fluffed raw cotton with a bow-shaped tool, cleaning and loosening the fibre. The word is Arabic ḥallāj. Çulha means 'weaver' and comes from Persian julāh. Then there is Abacı. Aba is a coarse woollen cloth and the cloak made from it, from Arabic ʿabāʾ; the abacı made or sold it.

Three shapes, and the year 1934

The names come in three shapes. Some are ready-made trade words: Terzi, Hallaç, Çulha. Some are a material plus -cı: Keçeci, Halıcı, Abacı. Some add -oğlu: Terzioğlu, Boyacıoğlu.

The Surname Law (Law No. 2525), adopted on 21 June 1934, required every Turk to carry a surname. Under its Article 5, an adult chose the name freely. For a family known in the market as 'the tailor' or 'the felt-maker', the nickname was often the obvious choice. Article 5 of the Surname Regulation took Turkish as the source for new surnames. Terzi, hallaç and çulha are Persian and Arabic by origin, yet they had long been ordinary Turkish words, and they entered the registers as surnames.

A chain of trades

This small hub follows a piece of cloth from start to finish. The hallaç fluffs the cotton, the çulha weaves it, the boyacı dyes it, the terzi cuts and sews, the yorgancı turns it into a quilt. Every link of that chain survives as a surname. The surname keeps the meaning of the word; it tells you nothing about the trade or background of the family that carries it now.