Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

SURNAMEEntry 819

Bozkurt

Bozkurt /bozˈkuɾt/

“grey wolf”2

Province lists
221
province top-30s
Letters / syllables
7 / 2
Formation
Compound
Vowel harmony
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Contents§1–§11
  1. §1Pronunciation
  2. §2Meaning
  3. §3Root tree
  4. §4Formation & 1934
  5. §5Name family
  6. §6Provinces
  7. §7Notable people
  8. §8As a first name
  9. §9Sources
  10. §10Questions
  11. §11Related

How do you pronounce Bozkurt?

Bozkurt

IPA /bozˈkuɾt/

The stress usually falls on syllable 2 (marked). In everyday Turkish, stress in surnames varies by speaker and region.

What does the surname Bozkurt mean?

Boz, “grey, dun”, joins kurt, “wolf”: “grey wolf”. In Turkic epics the grey wolf is the legendary animal that guides the Turks, best known from the Ergenekon story. Dictionaries list bozkurt as a single word, and it is also a male given name.2,3

Grammar Lexicalised adjective-plus-noun compound: boz + kurt.

Bozkurt is also an ordinary word in everyday Turkish.

What is Bozkurt made of?

Bozkurt breaks into 2 parts: boz (grey, dun) + kurt (wolf).

Bozkurt + first element boz grey, dun TURKIC boz “grey, dun, ash-coloured” root kurt wolf TURKIC kurt “wolf” Bozkurt boz first element grey, dun boz TURKIC “grey, dun, ash-coloured” kurt root wolf kurt TURKIC “wolf”
Bozkurt: parts and root words
  • boz Turkic — grey, dun, ash-coloured2
  • kurt Turkic — wolf3

How was the name Bozkurt formed?

Bozkurt belongs to the “compound” class of surnames (boz + kurt).

Which surnames are related to Bozkurt?

Bozkurt Kurt Boz Karakurt Bozdağ Kurtoğlu Akkurt Boztepe Kurdoğlu Bozok Özkurt Bozer Bozbay
Circle area shows the number of bearers; dashed circle: no national count published. Solid line: same root; dashed line: same affix.
#SurnameRelationRankPeople
01 Kurt same root 17 289,723
02 Boz same root – –
03 Karakurt same root – –
04 Bozdağ same root – –
05 Kurtoğlu same root – –
06 Akkurt same root – –
07 Boztepe same root – –
08 Kurdoğlu same root – –
09 Bozok same root – –
10 Özkurt same root – –
11 Bozer same root – –
12 Bozbay same root – –

Where in Türkiye is Bozkurt most common?

Bozkurt is outside the national top 30, but it appears in the top-30 lists of 22 provinces; its best rank is 13th in Gaziantep.1

Adana · rank 29 · 6,351 people Adıyaman · rank 21 · 2,990 people Afyonkarahisar Ağrı Amasya Ankara Antalya Artvin Aydın Balıkesir · rank 30 · 3,656 people Bilecik Bingöl · rank 28 · 743 people Bitlis Bolu Burdur Bursa Çanakkale · rank 27 · 1,863 people Çankırı Çorum Denizli Diyarbakır Edirne Elazığ Erzincan Erzurum Eskişehir Gaziantep · rank 13 · 18,383 people Giresun Gümüşhane Hakkari Hatay · rank 28 · 4,360 people Isparta Mersin Istanbul Izmir Kars Kastamonu Kayseri · rank 27 · 4,204 people Kırklareli Kırşehir Kocaeli Konya Kütahya Malatya · rank 29 · 2,237 people Manisa Kahramanmaraş Mardin Muğla Muş · rank 18 · 2,342 people Nevşehir Niğde Ordu Rize Sakarya Samsun Siirt Sinop · rank 29 · 930 people Sivas Tekirdağ Tokat Trabzon Tunceli · rank 23 · 382 people Şanlıurfa · rank 18 · 10,998 people Uşak · rank 27 · 1,390 people Van Yozgat Zonguldak · rank 24 · 2,230 people Aksaray Bayburt Karaman Kırıkkale Batman · rank 30 · 2,760 people Şırnak · rank 17 · 2,230 people Bartın · rank 28 · 705 people Ardahan · rank 19 · 531 people Iğdır · rank 22 · 741 people Yalova Karabük · rank 17 · 1,036 people Kilis · rank 17 · 841 people Osmaniye Düzce Hover or focus a province · ADNKS 2025
  • In the province top 30 22
  • Not listed
Bozkurt: rank by province, 2025 (TÜİK ADNKS, province top-30 lists)
Provinces with the most bearers
#ProvinceRankPeople
01Gaziantep1318,383
02Şanlıurfa1810,998
03Adana296,351
04Hatay284,360
05Kayseri274,204
06Balıkesir303,656

Who are some well-known people named Bozkurt?

  1. Leman Bozkurt Altınçekiç military personnel 1932–2001
  2. Cengiz Bozkurt actor 1965–
  3. Mahmut Esat Bozkurt politician 1892–1943
  4. Burhan Bozkurt amateur wrestler 1936–2013
  5. Demet Bozkurt association football player 1996–
  6. Osman Bozkurt association football player 1984–
  7. Ümit Bozkurt association football player 1976–
  8. Abdullah Bozkurt journalist 1971–

People surnamed Bozkurt as recorded in Wikidata, ordered by the number of Wikipedia language editions.

Is Bozkurt also a first name?

Yes. Bozkurt is given as a first name too, carrying the same sense: “grey wolf”.

Bozkurt as a first name: meaning and statistics — turkiyenames.com →

Where do these facts come from?

  1. 1 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS) accessed 8 November 2026
  2. 2 Wikimedia Wiktionary: boz accessed 8 November 2026
  3. 3 Wikimedia Wiktionary: kurt accessed 8 November 2026
  4. 4 Wikimedia Wiktionary: Bozkurt accessed 8 November 2026
  5. 5 Wikimedia Wikipedia: Ergenekon accessed 8 November 2026
  6. 6 Wikimedia Foundation Wikidata: people with this family name accessed 8 November 2026
  7. 7 T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr) Soyadı Kanunu (Kanun No. 2525) accessed 8 November 2026
  8. 8 T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr) Soyadı Nizamnamesi (Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı 2/1759) accessed 8 November 2026
  9. 9 Natural Earth Natural Earth: Admin-1 boundaries accessed 8 November 2026
  10. 10 turkiyenames.com Türkiye İsimleri (turkiyenames.com) accessed 8 November 2026

Common questions about Bozkurt

Q1

What does the surname Bozkurt mean?

Boz, “grey, dun”, joins kurt, “wolf”: “grey wolf”. In Turkic epics the grey wolf is the legendary animal that guides the Turks, best known from the Ergenekon story. Dictionaries list bozkurt as a single word, and it is also a male given name.
Q2

What is the origin of the surname Bozkurt?

The root word of Bozkurt is boz (Turkic): “grey, dun, ash-coloured”.
Q3

How do you pronounce Bozkurt?

Boz·kurt, 2 syllables; IPA: /bozˈkuɾt/.