Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

SURNAMENo. 27

ADNKS 2025

Can

/dʒan/

“soul, life; dear one”3

#27 The 27th most common surname in Türkiye 230,085 peopleTÜİK ADNKS 20251

National rank
271
ADNKS 2025
People
230,0851
ADNKS 2025
Per 1,000
2.72
1 in 374
Rank change
±01
vs 2024
Letters / syllables
3 / 1
Formation
Plain noun
Contents§1–§16
  1. §1Pronunciation
  2. §2Meaning
  3. §3Root tree
  4. §4Formation & 1934
  5. §5Name family
  6. §6How many
  7. §7Rank history
  8. §8Provinces
  9. §9Classroom maths
  10. §10Compared
  11. §11Full names
  12. §12Notable people
  13. §13As a first name
  14. §14Sources
  15. §15Questions
  16. §16Related

How do you pronounce Can?

Can

IPA /dʒan/

What does the surname Can mean?

Can is a word of Persian origin meaning “soul, life”. In Turkish it is also a term of affection, as in canım, “my dear”, or can dost, “bosom friend”. As a name it expresses both a beloved, precious person and liveliness.3

Can is also an ordinary word in everyday Turkish.

What is Can made of?

Can is a single Persian root: can (soul, life; dear one).

Can root can soul, life; dear one PERSIAN cān “soul, vital spirit, life” Can can root soul, life; dear one cān PERSIAN “soul, vital spirit, life”
Can: parts and root words
  • cān Persian — soul, vital spirit, life3

How was the name Can formed?

Can is the word can (“soul, life; dear one”), taken unchanged as a surname.

Shared note · 1934Surnames became compulsory with Surname Law No. 2525 of 21 June 1934.7

Which surnames are related to Can?

Can Özcan Ercan Demircan Candan Tezcan Karacan Babacan Gürcan Canpolat Arıcan Caner Canlı
Circle area shows the number of bearers; dashed circle: no national count published. Solid line: same root; dashed line: same affix.
#SurnameRelationRankPeople
01 Özcan same root 25 233,820
02 Ercan same root – –
03 Demircan same root – –
04 Candan same root – –
05 Tezcan same root – –
06 Karacan same root – –
07 Babacan same root – –
08 Gürcan same root – –
09 Canpolat same root – –
10 Arıcan same root – –
11 Caner same root – –
12 Canlı same root – –

How many people in Türkiye are called Can?

In TÜİK’s ADNKS 2025 figures, 230,085 people in Türkiye carry the surname Can, ranking it 27th in the top 30. That is 3,450 behind Erdoğan and 1,699 ahead of Acar.1

Bearers by year

TÜİK · ADNKS · 2018–2025 220 k 225 k 230 k 20182019202020212022202320242025 220,262 222,601 224,176 225,627 227,188 228,270 229,168 230,085 TÜİK · ADNKS · 2018–2025 220 k 225 k 230 k ’18’20’22’24’25 220,262 222,601 224,176 225,627 227,188 228,270 229,168 230,085
People with the surname Can, 2018–2025 (TÜİK ADNKS) Vertical axis does not start at zero.

Can gained 9,823 bearers between 2018 and 2025, yet its share slipped from 2.69 to 2.67 per 1,000 people, because the population grew faster. It has held 27th place every year since 2018.1,2

How has Can ranked over the years?

Source: TÜİK, address-based population register. Each row is that year’s record.
YearRankPeopleChangeSource
2025 27 230,085 +917 [1]
2024 27 229,168 +898 [1]
2023 27 228,270 +1,082 [1]
2022 27 227,188 +1,561 [1]
2021 27 225,627 +1,451 [1]
2020 27 224,176 +1,575 [1]
2019 27 222,601 +2,339 [1]
2018 27 220,262 – [1]

Where in Türkiye is Can most common?

Can is outside the national top 30, but it appears in the top-30 lists of 32 provinces; its best rank is 14th in Kırklareli.1

Adana · rank 20 · 7,159 people Adıyaman Afyonkarahisar Ağrı Amasya Ankara Antalya Artvin Aydın · rank 21 · 3,451 people Balıkesir · rank 18 · 4,990 people Bilecik · rank 16 · 958 people Bingöl Bitlis Bolu · rank 25 · 1,072 people Burdur · rank 19 · 1,084 people Bursa Çanakkale · rank 17 · 2,795 people Çankırı Çorum Denizli · rank 23 · 3,047 people Diyarbakır · rank 20 · 8,252 people Edirne · rank 21 · 1,265 people Elazığ · rank 24 · 2,306 people Erzincan · rank 19 · 978 people Erzurum Eskişehir · rank 20 · 3,169 people Gaziantep Giresun Gümüşhane Hakkari · rank 21 · 1,459 people Hatay Isparta Mersin · rank 23 · 6,312 people Istanbul · rank 28 · 40,008 people Izmir Kars · rank 22 · 1,129 people Kastamonu · rank 25 · 1,077 people Kayseri Kırklareli · rank 14 · 1,368 people Kırşehir Kocaeli Konya · rank 20 · 8,160 people Kütahya · rank 26 · 1,911 people Malatya Manisa · rank 23 · 4,343 people Kahramanmaraş Mardin · rank 27 · 3,217 people Muğla · rank 27 · 3,216 people Muş Nevşehir Niğde Ordu Rize Sakarya · rank 23 · 3,583 people Samsun Siirt · rank 30 · 1,169 people Sinop · rank 14 · 1,495 people Sivas Tekirdağ · rank 21 · 4,036 people Tokat Trabzon Tunceli Şanlıurfa Uşak Van · rank 17 · 4,035 people Yozgat Zonguldak Aksaray Bayburt Karaman · rank 24 · 842 people Kırıkkale Batman Şırnak Bartın Ardahan Iğdır · rank 17 · 898 people Yalova Karabük Kilis · rank 21 · 726 people Osmaniye Düzce Hover or focus a province · ADNKS 2025
  • In the province top 30 32
  • Not listed
Can: rank by province, 2025 (TÜİK ADNKS, province top-30 lists)
Provinces with the most bearers
#ProvinceRankPeople
01Istanbul2840,008
02Diyarbakır208,252
03Konya208,160
04Adana207,159
05Mersin236,312
06Balıkesir184,990

How often would you meet a Can?

About one person in 374 in Türkiye is a Can; a town of 10,000 would have around 27.

About 2.7 Cans in a group of 1,000

230,085 ÷ 86,092,168 × 1,000 ≈ 2.7 1,2

The calculation divides bearers by the 2025 ADNKS population; a real school or class will differ by region.

How does Can compare with similar surnames?

Surnames in the “Heart, joy and hope” category and the Can family:

  1. 25 Özcan 233,820
  2. 26 Erdoğan 233,535
  3. 27 Can 230,085
  4. 28 Acar 228,386
  5. 29 Güneş 227,203
Surnames from the same category and family with a published national count (TÜİK ADNKS 2025)

Can and Acar are carried by almost exactly as many people.

How many people are called Mehmet Can?

These are estimates that assume given names and surnames are independent. In reality, families and regions do not choose names independently, so read them as orders of magnitude.

#Full nameEstimated people
01 Mehmet Can ≈3,399estimate
02 Fatma Can ≈3,079estimate
03 Mustafa Can ≈2,827estimate
04 Ayşe Can ≈2,424estimate
05 Ahmet Can ≈2,291estimate

people(given name) × people(surname) ÷ population1,2,6

Who are some well-known people named Can?

  1. Emre Can association football player 1994–
  2. Sibel Can actor 1970–
  3. Eyüp Can boxer 1964–
  4. Emre Can chess player 1990–
  5. Erkan Can actor 1958–
  6. Şenol Can association football player 1983–
  7. Polat Can writer 1980–
  8. Mustafa Can writer 1969–

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

Is Can also a first name?

Yes. Can is given as a first name too, carrying the same sense: “soul, life; dear one”.

Can 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 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK ADNKS: Cinsiyete göre nüfus, Türkiye ve 81 il accessed 8 November 2026
  3. 3 Wikimedia Wiktionary: cān accessed 8 November 2026
  4. 4 Wikimedia Wiktionary: can accessed 8 November 2026
  5. 5 Wikimedia Foundation Wikidata: people with this family name accessed 8 November 2026
  6. 6 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı — En çok kullanılan isimler (ADNKS) accessed 9 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 Natural Earth Natural Earth: Admin-1 boundaries accessed 8 November 2026
  9. 9 turkiyenames.com Türkiye İsimleri (turkiyenames.com) accessed 9 November 2026

Common questions about Can

Q1

What does the surname Can mean?

Can is a word of Persian origin meaning “soul, life”. In Turkish it is also a term of affection, as in canım, “my dear”, or can dost, “bosom friend”. As a name it expresses both a beloved, precious person and liveliness.
Q2

How many people in Türkiye have the surname Can?

230,085 people, according to TÜİK ADNKS 2025, which places it at number 27 in Türkiye.
Q3

What is the origin of the surname Can?

The root word of Can is cān (Persian): “soul, vital spirit, life”.
Q4

How do you pronounce Can?

Can, 1 syllable; IPA: /dʒan/.