The Surname Regulation of 1934: the rules, article by article

What is the Soyadı Nizamnamesi?

The Surname Law ran to only fifteen articles. Its Article 13 said that a regulation would set out how it was to be applied. The Soyadı Nizamnamesi, or Surname Regulation, is that regulation.

The Council of State reviewed the text first. The cabinet approved it on 24 December 1934 (decision no. 2/1759), and it appeared in the Resmî Gazete no. 2891 on 27 December 1934. Article 53 said it applied from 2 January 1935, the same day the law took effect.

The 1934 text had six parts and 54 articles. Points the law covered in a sentence or two are worked out here in detail, down to who wrote what into which register.

Which language did new surnames have to come from?

Article 5 is brief: new surnames are taken from the Turkish language. The law itself had no such rule. The law listed what was forbidden; the regulation added a positive standard.

Article 6 deals with form. A surname is used either on its own or together with “oğlu” (“son of”). Both “Demir” and “Demiroğlu” were acceptable.

What did it ban?

The regulation split the bans in Article 3 of the law into five articles:

• Article 7: names of foreign races and nations may not be used as surnames.
• Article 8: surnames implying membership of a tribe or clan may not be used or newly given.
• Article 9: surnames denoting ranks or offices of the old or the new state cadres may not be used.
• Article 10: surnames that offend public decency, or are ridiculous, disgusting or insulting, may not be used.
• Article 11: surnames implying a link to famous historical figures may not be used unless official records or documents prove the link.

“Insulting” names and ranks of the “old” state are the regulation’s additions to the wording of the law. Article 12 said names breaking these rules could not be entered in the register, and any already entered were to be struck out and replaced.

A common claim deserves a mention here. Many websites say the regulation banned the endings -yan, -of, -ef, -viç, -is, -dis, -pulos, -aki, -zade, -mahdumu, -veled and -bin. Neither the 1934 text nor the current text contains any such list of endings. Where the list comes from is unclear; see banned surnames.

Could two families take the same surname?

Articles 13 and 14 of the 1934 text answer this in detail. Families descended from the same line could choose a shared surname. People of different descent could not jointly take the same one.

If unrelated people in the same village, town or city chose the same surname, the first applicant kept it and the others had to change theirs. Anyone who refused was distinguished by an adjective such as “büyük” (elder, big) or “küçük” (younger, small), or by some other addition. In cities with several registry offices, each office counted as a separate town for this rule.

That rule no longer applies. Articles 13 and 14 were repealed in 2009.

Who chose whose surname?

Part III is headed “the right and duty to choose a surname”. Under the 1934 text:

• A child born in marriage carried the father’s surname.
• On marriage a woman dropped her father’s surname and took her husband’s. A widow could keep her late husband’s surname or return to her father’s within one year.
• A father chose the surname for his minor children. An adult of sound mind chose freely.
• The head of the household had to have surnames chosen for the relatives living under his roof and see them registered.
• For children whose parents were unknown, the village head and council, or in towns the municipal representative, chose a surname with the approval of the civil administrator.

For anyone who had not chosen by 2 July 1936, the governor, the district governor or someone they appointed chose a surname. That person then had to use it.

How were the surnames entered in the registers?

Parts IV and V cover the practical side: surname registers, village heads, municipal representatives, signatures and deadlines. We treat this in a separate article: how surnames were chosen and registered.

In short: between 2 January 1935 and 2 July 1936, every head of household gave the chosen names to the village head or municipal representative. The registers were certified and sent to district and provincial governors, and from there to the registry offices. Under Article 48, from 2 January 1935 no birth could be registered without a surname.

Is the regulation still in force?

Yes, but not in its 1934 form. A cabinet decision of 25 March 2009 (no. 2009/14848) rewrote much of it, with effect from 29 April 2009. Many articles were repealed, including Articles 31 to 52 on the registration procedure.

The core that remains:

• Every Turkish citizen must carry a surname; for anyone without one, the civil administration enters the surname they choose in the family register (Art. 1).
• New surnames are taken from Turkish (Art. 5) and used alone or with “oğlu” (Art. 6).
• The bans in Articles 7 to 11 are unchanged.
• To change a name that breaks those bans, the public prosecutor brings a case before the civil court of first instance where the person lives (Art. 12).
• Article 17 says a woman takes her husband’s surname on marriage but may, by written application, also use her previous surname in front of it.

A note on that last point. The matching provision in the Civil Code, Article 187, was annulled by the Constitutional Court, with effect from 28 January 2024. The regulation’s wording has not yet been changed. We cover the current position in changing a surname today.