SURNAMENo. 23
ADNKS 2025Yavuz
“formidable, stern, resolute”4
#23 The 23rd most common surname in Türkiye 236,317 peopleTÜİK ADNKS 20251
Leading provinces Trabzon · Afyonkarahisar · Isparta
Published: Last updated:
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How do you pronounce Yavuz?
The stress usually falls on syllable 2 (marked). In everyday Turkish, stress in surnames varies by speaker and region.
What does the surname Yavuz mean?
Today yavuz means “formidable, stern, fierce, awe-inspiring”. The word goes back to Proto-Turkic *yabïrᶻ, and in older texts it meant “bad”, a sense that shifted over time. As a name it describes a resolute, fearless person.4
Yavuz is also an ordinary word in everyday Turkish.
How was the name Yavuz formed?
Yavuz is the adjective yavuz (“stern, formidable, fierce”), taken unchanged as a surname.
Yavuz was the epithet of the Ottoman sultan Selim I (1470–1520), known in Turkish as “Yavuz Sultan Selim”. English renders the epithet as “the Grim” or “the Resolute”.5
Which surnames are related to Yavuz?
| # | Surname | Relation | Rank | People |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Özyavuz | same root | – | – |
| 02 | Yavuzaslan | same root | – | – |
| 03 | Eryavuz | same root | – | – |
| 04 | Yavuzer | same root | – | – |
How many people in Türkiye are called Yavuz?
In TÜİK’s ADNKS 2025 figures, 236,317 people in Türkiye carry the surname Yavuz, ranking it 23rd in the top 30. That is 8,937 behind Özkan and 1,031 ahead of Çakır.1
Bearers by year
| 2018 | 226,111 |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 228,435 |
| 2020 | 230,206 |
| 2021 | 231,852 |
| 2022 | 233,305 |
| 2023 | 234,482 |
| 2024 | 235,375 |
| 2025 | 236,317 |
Yavuz gained 10,206 bearers between 2018 and 2025, yet its share slipped from 2.76 to 2.74 per 1,000 people, because the population grew faster. It climbed from 25th in 2018 to 23rd in 2025.1,2
How has Yavuz ranked over the years?
| Year | Rank | People | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 23 | 236,317 | +942 | [1] |
| 2024 | 23 | 235,375 | +893 | [1] |
| 2023 | 23 | 234,482 | +1,177 | [1] |
| 2022 | 23 | 233,305 | +1,453 | [1] |
| 2021 | 24 | 231,852 | +1,646 | [1] |
| 2020 | 24 | 230,206 | +1,771 | [1] |
| 2019 | 25 | 228,435 | +2,324 | [1] |
| 2018 | 25 | 226,111 | – | [1] |
Where in Türkiye is Yavuz most common?
Yavuz is outside the national top 30, but it appears in the top-30 lists of 31 provinces; its best rank is 11th in Trabzon.1
- In the province top 30 31
- Not listed
How often would you meet a Yavuz?
How does Yavuz compare with similar surnames?
Surnames in the “Courage and resilience” category and the Yavuz family:
Yavuz and Acar are carried by almost exactly as many people.
How many people are called Mehmet Yavuz?
The calculated first-name pairings for Yavuz include Mehmet Yavuz, Fatma Yavuz and Mustafa Yavuz; the figures below are estimates assuming independence.
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 name | Estimated people |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Mehmet Yavuz ↗ | ≈3,491estimate |
| 02 | Fatma Yavuz ↗ | ≈3,163estimate |
| 03 | Mustafa Yavuz ↗ | ≈2,903estimate |
Who are some well-known people named Yavuz?
- Yüksel Yavuz screenwriter 1964–
- Erdinç Yavuz association football player 1978–
- İbrahim Yavuz association football player 1982–
- Haydar Yavuz amateur wrestler 1994–
- Mustafa Yavuz association football player 1994–
- Gizem Yavuz basketball player 1988–
- Abdurrahman Yavuz Kalkan association football player 1973–
- Ali İhsan Yavuz politician 1969–
People surnamed Yavuz as recorded in Wikidata, ordered by the number of Wikipedia language editions.
Is Yavuz also a first name?
Yes. Yavuz is given as a first name too, carrying the same sense: “formidable, stern, resolute”.
Yavuz as a first name: meaning and statistics — turkiyenames.com →
Which surnames have a meaning similar to Yavuz?
Eryavuz, Gürbüzer and Acar share gloss keywords with Yavuz within the same primary category.
Which guides add context to Yavuz?
Read the root, formation and register information for Yavuz alongside these guides: Turkish Surname Statistics: Surnames in Numbers and How to research a Turkish surname and family tree.
Where do these facts come from?
- 1 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS)
- 2 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK ADNKS: Cinsiyete göre nüfus, Türkiye ve 81 il
- 3 dergipark.org.tr dergipark.org.tr: 358957
- 4 Wikimedia Wiktionary: yavuz
- 5 Wikimedia Wikipedia: Selim I
- 6 Wikimedia Foundation Wikidata: people with this family name
- 7 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK)ADNKS TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı — En çok kullanılan isimler (ADNKS)
- 8 T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr) Soyadı Kanunu (Kanun No. 2525)
- 9 T.C. Resmî Gazete / Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (mevzuat.gov.tr) Soyadı Nizamnamesi (Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı 2/1759)
- 10 Natural Earth Natural Earth: Admin-1 boundaries
- 11 turkiyenames.com Türkiye İsimleri (turkiyenames.com)
Common questions about Yavuz
- Q1
What does the surname Yavuz mean?
- Today yavuz means “formidable, stern, fierce, awe-inspiring”. The word goes back to Proto-Turkic *yabïrᶻ, and in older texts it meant “bad”, a sense that shifted over time. As a name it describes a resolute, fearless person.
- Q2
How many people in Türkiye have the surname Yavuz?
- 236,317 people, according to TÜİK ADNKS 2025, which places it at number 23 in Türkiye.
- Q3
What is the origin of the surname Yavuz?
- The root word of Yavuz is yavuz (Turkic): “formidable, stern, fierce; dialectally good, fine”.
- Q4
How do you pronounce Yavuz?
- Ya·vuz, 2 syllables; IPA: /jaˈvuz/.