Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

SURNAMEEntry 1,842

Karababa

Karababa /kaɾabaˈba/

“kara + baba: ‘great father’”1

Letters / syllables
8 / 4
Formation
Compound
Vowel harmony
back
Initial
K
Contents§1–§9
  1. §1Pronunciation
  2. §2Meaning
  3. §3Root tree
  4. §4Formation & 1934
  5. §5Name family
  6. §6Notable people
  7. §7Sources
  8. §8Questions
  9. §9Related

How do you pronounce Karababa?

Karababa

IPA /kaɾabaˈba/

The stress usually falls on syllable 4 (marked). In everyday Turkish, stress in surnames varies by speaker and region.

What does the surname Karababa mean?

Made of kara ‘black; strong, great’ and baba ‘father’. In Anatolia baba was also a title for respected elders and heads of dervish orders. Nişanyan Adlar mentions the Karababa shrine near Old Malatya as a place of pilgrimage, and several villages bear the same name.1,2

Grammar kara + baba: adjective–noun compound.

That Karababa goes back to kara and baba is probable rather than proven: the dictionaries cited agree on it.

What is Karababa made of?

Karababa breaks into 2 parts: kara (black; strong, great) + baba (father; elder of a dervish order).

Karababa + first element kara black; strong, great TURKIC kara “black; figurativelystrong, great” root baba father; elder of adervish order TURKIC baba “father; respected elder,head of a dervish order” Karababa kara first element black; strong, great kara TURKIC “black; figuratively strong,great” baba root father; elder of a dervish order baba TURKIC “father; respected elder, head ofa dervish order”
Karababa: parts and root words
  • kara Turkic — black; figuratively strong, great1
  • baba Turkic — father; respected elder, head of a dervish order2

How was the name Karababa formed?

Karababa belongs to the “compound” class of surnames (kara + baba).

Which surnames are related to Karababa?

Karababa Kara Karataş Karahan Karaca Karakaş Karadağ Karakaya Karakoç Karaaslan Karagöz Baykara Karabulut
Circle area shows the number of bearers; dashed circle: no national count published. Solid line: same root; dashed line: same affix.
#SurnameRelationRankPeople
01 Kara same root 16 290,024
02 Karataş same root – –
03 Karahan same root – –
04 Karaca same root – –
05 Karakaş same root – –
06 Karadağ same root – –
07 Karakaya same root – –
08 Karakoç same root – –
09 Karaaslan same root – –
10 Karagöz same root – –
11 Baykara same root – –
12 Karabulut same root – –

Who are some well-known people named Karababa?

  1. Necdet Karababa politician 1935–2006
  2. Serkan Karababa association football player 1975–
  3. Nilgün Karababa actor 1965–
  4. Sevda Karababa singer 1975–
  5. Zeynep Karababa musician 1965–
  6. Özgür Karababa volleyball player 2003–
  7. Alper Karababa researcher

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

Where do these facts come from?

  1. 1 Wikimedia Vikisözlük: kara accessed 8 November 2026
  2. 2 Wikimedia Vikisözlük: baba accessed 8 November 2026
  3. 3 nisanyanadlar.com nisanyanadlar.com: Karababa accessed 8 November 2026
  4. 4 Wikimedia Foundation Wikidata: people with this family name accessed 8 November 2026
  5. 5 T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr) Soyadı Kanunu (Kanun No. 2525) accessed 8 November 2026
  6. 6 T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr) Soyadı Nizamnamesi (Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı 2/1759) accessed 8 November 2026
  7. 7 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS) accessed 8 November 2026

Common questions about Karababa

Q1

What does the surname Karababa mean?

Made of kara ‘black; strong, great’ and baba ‘father’. In Anatolia baba was also a title for respected elders and heads of dervish orders. Nişanyan Adlar mentions the Karababa shrine near Old Malatya as a place of pilgrimage, and several villages bear the same name.
Q2

What is the origin of the surname Karababa?

The root word of Karababa is kara (Turkic): “black; figuratively strong, great”.
Q3

How do you pronounce Karababa?

Ka·ra·ba·ba, 4 syllables; IPA: /kaɾabaˈba/.