Turkish surname meaning: search by name or by meaning

To find out what your surname means, type it into the box above. The finder shows a short meaning for each of the 5,194 surnames on this site and links to the full surname page with its sources. You can also search the other way round: type a meaning word such as "iron", "star" or "mountain" and list the surnames that carry that meaning.

How do I search by surname?

You do not need Turkish letters. Typing "yildiz" finds Yıldız, "ozturk" finds Öztürk and "sahin" finds Şahin. The beginning of a name is enough: "karad" brings up Karadağ, Karademir and similar names. One-letter typos are tolerated too. Spelling variants of the same surname have their own pages and link to each other: the Demir page shows Temür and Timur, the Kılıç page shows Kılınç.

Every result card shows three things:

• the correct spelling,
• the short meaning, in Turkish, English and German,
• the TÜİK ADNKS rank and count, if the surname is on the national list.

Clicking a card opens the surname page, with the root word, the suffixes, the language the word comes from, the sources and the TÜİK figures.

How do I go from a meaning to surnames?

Switch the search box to "by meaning" and type a word. The finder lists the surnames whose short meaning contains it. Some examples from our dataset (November 2026, 5,194 surnames):

• iron: 106 published surnames match this word in their short meanings and root explanations.
• star: 164 published surnames match this word in their short meanings and root explanations.
• mountain: 93 published surnames match this word in their short meanings and root explanations.

The meaning search looks at what a name means, not at its letters. Polat appears under "steel" although the word steel is nowhere in the name. In the other direction, not every surname containing "ay" turns up under "moon": Günay does, because it means "sun and moon", but a name ending in a different suffix -ay does not.

How is a surname's meaning worked out?

Most Turkish surnames consist of one or two words and a suffix. The meaning comes from analysing each part:

• A single word: Kaya, "rock, crag". Aslan, "lion; brave, strong".
• Verb + suffix: Yılmaz is the verb yılmak ("to be daunted, to shrink back") with the negative suffix -maz: "undaunted". Korkmaz has the same shape: "fearless".
• Compound: Özdemir = öz ("pure") + demir ("iron"). Karadağ = kara ("black") + dağ ("mountain"). Günay = gün ("sun, day") + ay ("moon").
• An old title or given name: Tekin, from Old Turkic tegin, "prince".

5,194 published surname entries include 1,153 simple nouns, 1,549 compounds, 764 suffixed forms, 386 verbal forms and 253 entries in the “coined in 1934” class. That class describes a formation pattern; it does not date an individual surname’s creation.

What is on a surname page?

The result card gives the short meaning; the detail is on the surname page. Each page has:

• Root and suffixes: for Yılmaz, yıl- (root) and -maz (negative aorist participle) are explained separately.
• A longer explanation: what the word means, how it is used and, where known, its history before the Surname Law.
• Root-word languages: published entries include 3,567 with Turkic, 625 with Arabic and 533 with Persian roots.
• Family: surnames sharing the same root. The Yılmaz page links to Eryılmaz, Özyılmaz, Türkyılmaz and others.
• Spelling and pronunciation: syllables, IPA and, for many surnames, an audio clip.
• Numbers: if the surname is on TÜİK's lists, its rank and count for 2018–2025 and the provinces whose lists it appears in.

Which sources are the meanings based on?

Every surname page lists its sources for meaning and origin in footnotes. The main ones are Nişanyan Sözlük and Nişanyan Adlar, the TDK Güncel Türkçe Sözlük, and Wiktionary in Turkish and English. Meanings are written in our own words; no text is copied from any source.

What do "established", "probable" and "disputed" mean?

Among published entries, 2,050 surname derivations are classified as “established”, 2,868 as “probable” and 276 as “disputed”.

• Established: a dictionary gives the meaning and there is no serious objection. Examples: Kaya, Yılmaz, Özdemir.
• Probable: the analysis is clear, but no source deals with this surname directly. Examples: Karadağ, Akyıldız, Günay.
• Disputed: sources give different origins. Example: Tarhan, an old Turkic title. Some historians derive it from an East Iranian language, others regard it as Turkic. The page gives both views with their sources.

The language a word comes from says nothing about the ancestry of the families who carry it as a surname. An Arabic or Persian word may have entered Turkish centuries ago and could be chosen by any family in 1934.

What if my surname is not found?

• Try another spelling. An extra letter, a compound or a variant can matter: Arslan and Aslan, Kılıç and Kılınç have separate pages.
• Split it. If your surname is not on the site, its parts may be. Searching Kara- and -dağ separately already explains most of Karadağ.
• Use the meaning search. If you can guess what your surname refers to, searching by meaning shows related names.
• Write to us. You can report a missing surname through the corrections form. New surnames are added as sources for them are found.