Ottoman and “noble” Turkish surnames: titles, -oğlu families and 1934

What does “noble surname” mean?

In everyday Turkish, asil soyadı (“noble surname”) usually refers to three kinds of names. The first are surnames containing a title word: Paşa, Ağaoğlu, Beyoğlu, Çelebi, Han. The second are -oğlu surnames that recall a family known from history: Karaosmanoğlu, Çapanoğlu, Germiyanoğlu. The third are words that sound old or “Ottoman”: Dizdar, Zaimoğlu, Haznedaroğlu.

The idea has a basis: many of these words really are titles and offices of the Ottoman state or of older Turkic states. But it leaves out three facts:

1. Surnames were chosen or assigned in 1935–1936 under the Surname Law of 1934. A surname is a word chosen at that time; it does not by itself document a family’s earlier status.
2. The 1934 rules banned names of ranks and offices as surnames and removed titles from official use.
3. The Surname Regulation accepted surnames implying a link to famous historical figures only if official records and documents proved the link.

So this guide treats these surnames as words: what Paşa means, where Çelebi comes from, what -oğlu expresses. We make no claim of ancestry or nobility for any family that carries these surnames today.

How were families known before 1934?

In the Ottoman period there was no surname that everyone carried and that was fixed in the population register. In official papers people were identified by their given name, their father’s name, a nickname or a title. Some families, however, were known by one name over generations. Such names were mostly built with one of three patterns: Turkish -oğlu ‘son of’, -zade ‘son of, descendant of’ (of Persian origin) and Turkish -gil ‘household of’.

Some examples documented in the sources:

• Karaosmanoğlu: ‘son of Kara Osman’. The Karaosmanoğulları were a dynasty of provincial notables (ayan) that arose around Manisa and Akhisar; they took their name from Kara Osman, who died in 1706, and were influential across much of the Aegean in the 18th century.
• Çapanoğlu: ‘son of Çapan’. The Çapanoğulları settled in Bozok (Yozgat) in the mid-17th century and became one of the strongest notable families of the region in the 18th. Historical sources also have the forms Çaparoğulları and Çaparzâdeler: the same family was named with both -oğlu and -zade.
• Uşaklıgil: According to a scholarly article, this family name appears in older texts as Uşşakizade and in modern transcriptions as Uşakizade. After the Surname Law the novelist Halit Ziya took it as his surname in the form Uşaklıgil: -gil instead of -zade.
• Germiyanoğlu: the name of the Germiyanid principality centred on Kütahya, which became part of the Ottoman realm in 1428.
• Köprülü: ‘having a bridge’ or ‘from Köprü’. The best-known case is the byname of the grand vizier Köprülü Mehmed Paşa, taken from the town of Köprü, today Vezirköprü.
• Malkoç: the name of the Malkoçoğulları, a line that produced raider commanders in Rumelia. The origin of the word is disputed.
• Osmanoğlu: ‘son of Osman’, a very common male name. The same form was also used historically for the Ottoman dynasty.

One point matters when reading this list. That a surname is identical to a historical family name does not mean everyone who carries it today descends from that family. Osman, the base of Osmanoğlu, is an ordinary male name; Köprülü can equally be read as the plain word ‘having a bridge’. Only documents can link a surname to a family. For the structure and meaning of -oğlu, see surnames ending in -oğlu.

What did the 1934 rules do to titles?

Three texts deal with it.

Surname Law (No. 2525), Article 3: names of military ranks and civil offices, tribe names, names of foreign races and nations, and names that offend public decency or are disgusting or ridiculous may not be used as surnames.

Surname Regulation, Article 9: surnames denoting ranks or offices of the old or new state cadres may not be used or newly given. The word “old” expressly covers Ottoman ranks and offices. Article 11 of the same regulation bans surnames implying a link to famous historical figures unless official records and documents establish the link.

Law on Titles (No. 2590): passed on 26 November 1934 and published on 29 November 1934, its first article abolished titles and honorifics such as ağa, hacı, hafız, hoca, molla, efendi, bey, beyefendi, paşa, hanım, hanımefendi and hazretleri. Before the law and in official documents, citizens were to be referred to by their names only. The law does not regulate everyday speech; saying “Ahmet Bey” is still normal today.

Another claim circulates widely online: that the regulation banned endings such as -zade, -oğulları, -yan and -of one by one. No such list appears in the 1934 text of the regulation or in its current text. The only rule in the texts that concerns endings is that a surname is used on its own or together with “(oğlu)” (Art. 6). Our articles on banned surnames and the Law on Titles go into detail.

Which Ottoman titles survive as surnames today?

The rules concerned word forms. Even so, today’s records include surnames that come from titles and offices, some of them built with -oğlu. We do not try to explain here how each entry was registered; only documents could show that. Some examples with their dictionary meanings:

• Paşa: the title of high-ranking soldiers and statesmen in the Ottoman Empire. Nişanyan links the word to Persian pādişāh ‘sovereign’.
• Ağa and Ağaoğlu: from Old Turkic aka ‘elder brother’. In the Ottoman state it was the title of many officials, such as the agha of the Janissaries; in everyday speech a landowner or man of influence is also called ağa.
• Bey and Beyoğlu: Old Turkic beg ‘ruler, lord’. Nişanyan Adlar explains Beyoğlu as the Turkish equivalent of the Persian title Mirza, ‘son of an emir’.
• Mirza: Persian mīrzā, a title of nobility shortened from a compound meaning ‘son of an emir’. In Iran it was given both to princes and to educated scribes.
• Çelebi: an Ottoman title for princes, leading members of religious orders and educated, cultivated men: Evliya Çelebi, Kâtip Çelebi. Its origin is disputed. According to TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Çelebi is the 23rd most common surname in Aksaray, with 1,561 bearers.
• Kâhya: the popular form of kethüda, a steward who ran a mansion, an estate or a guild. Persian for ‘master of the house’.
• Dizdar: the commander responsible for guarding a castle; Persian ‘castle-holder’.
• Kadıoğlu: ‘son of the kadi’. The kadi was the judge of an Ottoman district.
• Zaimoğlu: a zaim held a zeamet, a mid-sized land grant in the Ottoman fief system.
• Haznedaroğlu: ‘son of the treasurer’, the official who kept and managed a treasury.

Military ranks and duties show a similar picture. Çavuş originally meant ‘herald, one who calls out’. A Serdar was a commander-in-chief, a Sipahi a cavalryman holding a land grant, an Alemdar a standard-bearer. Some appear in the provincial lists too. According to TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Bayraktar ‘standard-bearer’ ranks 16th in Trabzon with 4,921 bearers; Subaşı ranks 27th in Muş with 1,878; Dündar ranks 19th in Siirt with 1,668. For more, see surnames from Ottoman titles and military rank surnames.

Which surnames come from old Turkic titles?

Titles older than the Ottomans also survive in surnames. Most were already in use as male given names before 1934:

• Han, Hakan and Kaan: branches of the same sovereign’s title. Kaan is kağan, recorded as qaġan in the Orkhon inscriptions, with the ğ dropped.
• Tekin: Old Turkic tegin ‘prince’; the name Kül Tegin in the Göktürk inscriptions is the best-known example. In modern Turkish, tekin also means ‘safe, free of ill omen’. According to TÜİK ADNKS 2025, Tekin is in the top 30 of 12 provinces; the highest count, 8,298, is in Diyarbakır.
• Tarhan: a title given to high-ranking men in early states such as the Göktürks and the Khazars. Its origin is disputed. It ranks 21st in Bitlis with 1,146 bearers.
• Atabey: the Seljuk title of high officials who brought up the princes; literally ‘father-lord’.
• İnal: ‘one who is trusted’; an old title given to lords of dynastic descent.
• Giray: the name of the dynasty that ruled Crimea from the early 15th century until 1783.

Most of these surnames are identical to ordinary male given names today: Hakan, Kaan, Tekin, İnal. That a surname matches a sovereign’s title does not show any link between the family and a dynasty. For the full lists see surnames from old Turkic titles and the pages for -tekin, -han and -bey.

How should you weigh a claim that a surname is “noble”?

If you come across a claim such as “noble”, “descended from a pasha” or “an Ottoman family” about your own surname or someone else’s, ask these questions:

1. What does the word mean? Look up the dictionary meaning of the surname. A title word inside it is the history of the word.
2. What is the base of the -oğlu? -oğlu simply means ‘son of’; its base is usually a personal name, an occupation or a nickname: Hasanoğlu, Demircioğlu, Kocaoğlu. The pattern itself signals no status.
3. What document is there? Even Article 11 of the regulation made a claimed link to a famous person depend on documents. For family history the real sources are archival records such as population registers, land deeds and foundation documents.
4. When was the surname taken? A family’s name before 1934 and the surname it took in 1935–1936 can differ. Uşşakizade becoming Uşaklıgil is a documented example.

When we see that a surname on this site contains a word that comes from a title, we write that as the meaning of the word. We say that a family carrying the surname held that title in the past only where a document shows it. For the general history and structure of surnames, see the guide to Turkish last names; for how surnames are built, see how Turkish surnames are formed.