Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

National ranking·Top 30

TÜİK · ADNKS 2019

The most common surnames in Türkiye, 2019

Yılmaz stayed first in 2019 with 1,144,894 people, up 10,451 (0.92%) on 2018.1 That is about 1.33 times as many as Kaya in second place. The top-ten order is unchanged from 2018; within it, Demir grew fastest (1.33%). Together the top ten are carried by 7,176,920 people, 8.6% of the population, much the same share as in 2018.

Top 10 · 2019

  1. 1Yılmaz1,144,894
  2. 2Kaya858,398
  3. 3Demir831,095
  4. 4Çelik688,604
  5. 5Yıldız668,478
  6. 6Şahin667,161
  7. 7Yıldırım643,571
  8. 8Öztürk571,404
  9. 9Aydın563,570
  10. 10Özdemir539,745
First place
Yılmaz
People
1,144,8941
Yılmaz
Top-10 total
7,176,9201
Top 10 share of population
8.6%2
Population
83,154,9972
ADNKS 2019

Which were the 10 most common surnames in 2019?

  1. 1 Yılmaz 1,144,894
  2. 2 Kaya 858,398
  3. 3 Demir 831,095
  4. 4 Çelik 688,604
  5. 5 Yıldız 668,478
  6. 6 Şahin 667,161
  7. 7 Yıldırım 643,571
  8. 8 Öztürk 571,404
  9. 9 Aydın 563,570
  10. 10 Özdemir 539,745
People, TÜİK ADNKS 2019. Bars start at zero.

The full top 30

RankSurnameMeaningPeoplevs 2018Count changeShare of top 10
01 Yılmaz undaunted, one who never gives up 1,144,894 = +10,451 16.0%
02 Kaya rock, crag 858,398 = +10,661 12.0%
03 Demir iron; strong, steadfast 831,095 = +10,939 11.6%
04 Çelik steel; tough, resilient 688,604 = +8,046 9.6%
05 Yıldız star 668,478 = +7,698 9.3%
06 Şahin hawk, buzzard 667,161 = +6,527 9.3%
07 Yıldırım thunderbolt; lightning-fast 643,571 = +6,833 9.0%
08 Öztürk true Turk, genuine Turk 571,404 = +5,074 8.0%
09 Aydın bright; enlightened, educated 563,570 = +5,481 7.9%
10 Özdemir pure iron; firm as iron 539,745 = +5,122 7.5%
11 Arslan lion 500,426 = +5,566
12 Doğan falcon; rising, born 468,945 = +4,921
13 Kılıç sword 431,432 = +5,259
14 Aslan lion; brave, strong 384,735 = +5,770
15 Çetin tough, hardy, unyielding 335,014 = +3,095
16 Kara black, dark; dark-haired 280,988 = +2,829
17 Kurt wolf 278,215 = +3,027
18 Koç ram; sturdy, brave 277,019 = +2,804
19 Polat steel; strong as steel 259,362 = +3,665
20 Şimşek lightning flash 244,890 = +2,748
21 Korkmaz fearless 241,314 = +2,510
22 Özkan of pure blood, of good stock 240,311 = +1,833
23 Çakır grey-blue (of eyes) 229,588 = +1,998
24 Özcan pure soul; dear to the heart 228,659 = +1,821
25 Yavuz formidable, stern, resolute 228,435 = +2,324
26 Erdoğan warrior falcon; born a hero 227,586 = +1,984
27 Can soul, life; dear one 222,601 = +2,339
28 Acar bold, vigorous, capable 220,060 = +2,383
29 Güneş sun 216,622 = +2,637
30 Aktaş white stone 214,789 = +2,253
Source: TÜİK, ADNKS 2019. The top 30 are carried by 12,907,911 people in all.1

How should this ranking be read?

The figures come from TÜİK’s address-based population register (ADNKS) and describe the population resident in Türkiye on 31 December of each year. The NVİ civil register has a different scope, and the NVİ figures reported in the press are clearly higher; this site never puts the two registers in the same table or chart.

Surnames are inherited, not chosen each year, so the ranking barely moves from one year to the next, and most of the growth in the counts simply follows population growth. Changes of rank mostly happen between names whose counts are very close.

Ranks are shown exactly as TÜİK publishes them: names with equal counts share a rank, and the next rank is not skipped. The share of the top ten is each name’s count divided by the combined count of that year’s top ten.

Can I download this data or embed the chart?

The whole 2019 list is available as a CSV file, and the chart is a standalone SVG. Both are licensed CC BY 4.0: credit “turkiyesoyadlari.com, from TÜİK ADNKS 2019 data”.

To embed it:

<img src="https://turkiyesoyadlari.com/data/adnks-soyadlari-2019.svg" width="720" alt="The 10 most common surnames in Türkiye, 2019">

Sources

  1. 1Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) · ADNKS, TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS)
  2. 2Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) · ADNKS, TÜİK ADNKS: Cinsiyete göre nüfus, Türkiye ve 81 il