Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

National ranking·Top 30

TÜİK · ADNKS 2023

The most common surnames in Türkiye, 2023

Yılmaz stayed first in 2023 with 1,171,014 people, up 3,906 (0.33%) on 2022, a smaller gain than the 6,860 of the year before.1 That is about 1.32 times as many as Kaya in second place. The top-ten order is unchanged from 2022; within it, Demir grew fastest (0.76%). Together the top ten are carried by 7,383,430 people, 8.6% of the population, much the same share as in 2022.

Top 10 · 2023

  1. 1Yılmaz1,171,014
  2. 2Kaya888,828
  3. 3Demir864,643
  4. 4Çelik710,598
  5. 5Yıldız690,153
  6. 6Şahin683,206
  7. 7Yıldırım661,503
  8. 8Öztürk583,451
  9. 9Aydın577,350
  10. 10Özdemir552,684
First place
Yılmaz
People
1,171,0141
Yılmaz
Top-10 total
7,383,4301
Top 10 share of population
8.6%2
Population
85,372,3772
ADNKS 2023

Which were the 10 most common surnames in 2023?

  1. 1 Yılmaz 1,171,014
  2. 2 Kaya 888,828
  3. 3 Demir 864,643
  4. 4 Çelik 710,598
  5. 5 Yıldız 690,153
  6. 6 Şahin 683,206
  7. 7 Yıldırım 661,503
  8. 8 Öztürk 583,451
  9. 9 Aydın 577,350
  10. 10 Özdemir 552,684
People, TÜİK ADNKS 2023. Bars start at zero.

The full top 30

RankSurnameMeaningPeoplevs 2022Count changeShare of top 10
01 Yılmaz undaunted, one who never gives up 1,171,014 = +3,906 15.9%
02 Kaya rock, crag 888,828 = +5,761 12.0%
03 Demir iron; strong, steadfast 864,643 = +6,551 11.7%
04 Çelik steel; tough, resilient 710,598 = +3,784 9.6%
05 Yıldız star 690,153 = +3,824 9.3%
06 Şahin hawk, buzzard 683,206 = +2,551 9.3%
07 Yıldırım thunderbolt; lightning-fast 661,503 = +2,872 9.0%
08 Öztürk true Turk, genuine Turk 583,451 = +1,589 7.9%
09 Aydın bright; enlightened, educated 577,350 = +2,118 7.8%
10 Özdemir pure iron; firm as iron 552,684 = +2,056 7.5%
11 Arslan lion 515,937 = +2,544
12 Doğan falcon; rising, born 481,708 = +1,870
13 Kılıç sword 445,735 = +2,429
14 Aslan lion; brave, strong 402,681 = +3,297
15 Çetin tough, hardy, unyielding 342,708 = +1,201
16 Kara black, dark; dark-haired 287,923 = +993
17 Kurt wolf 286,632 = +1,374
18 Koç ram; sturdy, brave 284,090 = +1,159
19 Polat steel; strong as steel 269,770 = +1,814
20 Şimşek lightning flash 251,491 = +888
21 Korkmaz fearless 247,708 = +900
22 Özkan of pure blood, of good stock 244,378 = +569
23 Yavuz formidable, stern, resolute 234,482 = +1,177
24 Çakır grey-blue (of eyes) 233,972 = +668
25 Özcan pure soul; dear to the heart 232,980 = +701
26 Erdoğan warrior falcon; born a hero 232,384 = +607
27 Can soul, life; dear one 228,270 = +1,082
28 Acar bold, vigorous, capable 226,453 = +1,307
29 Güneş sun 224,456 = +1,338
30 Aktaş white stone 220,859 = +1,053
Source: TÜİK, ADNKS 2023. The top 30 are carried by 13,278,047 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 2023 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 2023 data”.

To embed it:

<img src="https://turkiyesoyadlari.com/data/adnks-soyadlari-2023.svg" width="720" alt="The 10 most common surnames in Türkiye, 2023">

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