Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

Province·Eastern Anatolia Region·Code 36

TÜİK · ADNKS 2024

The most common surnames in Kars 2024

The most common surname in Kars is Kaya (6,155 people, 2024). Yılmaz, first nationally, is 5th in Kars. Aydın is second with 5,654. Kaya has led Kars every year since 2018.1

First place
Kaya
People
6,1551
ADNKS 2024
Per 1,000
22.62
Kaya
Population
272,3002
ADNKS 2024
Surnames listed
301

The 30 most common surnames in Kars, 2024

RankSurnamePeoplePer 1,000National rank
01 Kaya 6,155 22.6 2
02 Aydın 5,654 20.8 9
03 Yıldız 5,296 19.4 5
04 Çelik 3,770 13.8 4
05 Yılmaz 3,690 13.6 1
06 Yıldırım 3,457 12.7 7
07 Demir 3,115 11.4 3
08 Öztürk 2,152 7.9 8
09 Bulut 2,142 7.9 –
10 Aras 2,140 7.9 –
11 Polat 2,136 7.8 19
12 Güneş 2,021 7.4 29
13 Kılıç 1,959 7.2 13
14 Turan 1,801 6.6 –
15 Doğan 1,670 6.1 12
16 Aktaş 1,578 5.8 30
17 Altun 1,536 5.6 –
18 Aslan 1,502 5.5 14
19 Karadağ 1,273 4.7 –
20 Koç 1,228 4.5 18
21 Özdemir 1,205 4.4 10
22 Can 1,135 4.2 27
23 Taş 1,122 4.1 –
24 Ekinci 1,012 3.7 –
25 Oğul 967 3.6 –
26 Gündüz 965 3.5 –
27 Vargün 933 3.4 –
28 Arslan 931 3.4 11
29 Erkmen 921 3.4 –
30 Alkan 874 3.2 –
Source: TÜİK, ADNKS 2024, province top 30; ranks as published (ties share a rank). Per 1,000: share of the province population. National rank: place in the national top 30.1,2

How do these counts compare with Kars’s population?

With an ADNKS population of 272,300 in 2024, about 22.6 in every 1,000 people in Kars are called Kaya. The 30 listed surnames together cover 64,340 people, 23.6% of the population.1,2

Kars lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region. According to ADNKS its population fell by 5.7% between 2018 and 2024.2

TÜİK · ADNKS 270 k 280 k 290 k 2018201920202021202220232024 288,878 285,410 284,923 281,077 274,829 278,335 272,300 TÜİK · ADNKS 270 k 280 k 290 k ’18’20’22’24 288,878 285,410 284,923 281,077 274,829 278,335 272,300
Population of Kars, 2018–2024 Vertical axis does not start at zero.

Which surname leads in the neighbouring provinces?

  • AğrıAğrı: also Kaya, with 15,718 people in 2024, 2.6 times as many as in Kars.
  • ArdahanArdahan: Yılmaz leads (2,999 people); Kaya, first in Kars, ranks 4th there with 1,721.
  • ErzurumErzurum: Yılmaz leads (10,657 people); Kaya, first in Kars, ranks 2nd there with 10,407.
  • IğdırIğdır: Aras leads (2,848 people); Kaya, first in Kars, ranks 2nd there with 2,802.

Neighbours: land borders derived from Natural Earth boundaries.3

Has Kars’s top three changed over the years?

Year1.2.3.
2018 Kaya 6,299Aydın 5,891Yıldız 5,745
2019 Kaya 6,274Aydın 5,883Yıldız 5,722
2020 Kaya 6,275Aydın 5,892Yıldız 5,657
2021 Kaya 6,170Aydın 5,842Yıldız 5,541
2022 Kaya 6,170Aydın 5,736Yıldız 5,409
2023 Kaya 6,168Aydın 5,707Yıldız 5,385
2024 Kaya 6,155Aydın 5,654Yıldız 5,296
2025 Kaya 6,129Aydın 5,608Yıldız 5,191

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
  3. 3Natural Earth, Natural Earth: Admin-1 boundaries