Law No. 2590: the end of efendi, bey and paşa

When was Law No. 2590 passed?

Its full title is the “Law on the Abolition of Nicknames and Titles such as Efendi, Bey and Paşa”. It was passed on 26 November 1934 and published in the Resmî Gazete no. 2867 on 29 November 1934. Under Article 4 it took effect on publication.

The timing is striking. The Surname Law had been passed in June but was not yet in force. On 24 November the President was given the surname Atatürk. Two days later, titles were abolished. A month on, the Surname Regulation was approved.

Which titles were abolished?

Article 1 lists them: ağa, hacı, hafız, hoca, molla, efendi, bey, beyefendi, paşa, hanım, hanımefendi and hazretleri. The list ends with “such as”, so it gives examples rather than a closed list.

The same article sets a rule: male and female citizens are referred to “by their names only” before the law and in official documents.

Some of these were titles of state service (paşa, bey, efendi). Some marked religious or scholarly standing (hacı, a pilgrim to Mecca; hafız, someone who has memorised the Quran; hoca and molla, teachers and religious scholars). Others were everyday terms of respect (hanım, hanımefendi, hazretleri). The law draws no distinction. It removes all of them from official use.

What happened to decorations and ranks?

Article 2 abolished civil ranks, official decorations and medals, and banned their use. War medals were exempt. Turks were also barred from wearing decorations of foreign states.

Article 3 renamed military ranks. On land and in the air, müşir became “Mareşal” (marshal), and birinci ferik, ferik and liva became “General”. At sea, the same grades became “Amiral” (admiral). The titles showing the grades of generals and admirals, and the equivalents for other military ranks, were to be set by the Supreme Military Council and approved by the cabinet.

Article 5 made the cabinet responsible for carrying out the law.

Is the law still in force?

Largely, yes. According to the footnote in the official legislation database, provisions that conflict with Law No. 926 of 27 July 1967, the Turkish Armed Forces Personnel Law, were repealed by Article 208(h) of that law. That touches the part on military ranks. Article 1, on abolishing titles, stands as written.

What the law forbids is the official use of titles. In everyday speech, “Ahmet Bey” and “Ayşe Hanım” are still common forms of address. The law does not regulate that. It regulates how you are named before the law and in official documents.

How does it relate to the Surname Law?

The two laws deal with two sides of one question: how is a person named in the official record?

Until 1934, many people were known in official correspondence by their given name and a title. Law No. 2590 took titles out of official use. The Surname Law required every citizen to carry a surname after the given name. Official identity was reduced to “given name + surname”.

The surname rules also kept titles from coming back in disguise:

• Article 3 of the Surname Law banned names of ranks and offices as surnames.
• Article 9 of the Surname Regulation explicitly extended this to ranks and offices “of the old and the new” state.
• Article 6 of the law reserved “titles established by law”.

See banned surnames for the detail.

Do title words never appear in surnames?

The law texts cannot settle that. The surname rules banned names of ranks and offices. But whether words like “hoca” or “hacı” entered the register as part of a surname is a question about individual records. The texts tell us the rule, not whether every record followed it.

When a surname on this site contains a word that is also a title, we describe it as the meaning of the word. We only say a family once held that title if there is a document showing it.

What does it mean in practice today?

Official documents, the civil register and identity cards show people by given name and surname. A title is not part of legal identity. Academic titles, professional titles and military ranks are used under their own legislation. They are not the nicknames and titles that Law No. 2590 abolished.