Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

Surname index·Letter

Surnames beginning with C

62 of the dictionary’s 3,450 surnames begin with C (1.8%). Only one of them is in the national top 30: Can, ranked 27th with 230,085 people (TÜİK ADNKS 2025).

Surnames
62
in this index
In the national top 30
11
ADNKS 2025
Most common
Can
230,085 people

62 surnames in Turkish alphabetical order

  1. Caba free; extra
  2. Cabbar mighty, compeller (divine attribute)
  3. Can soul, life; dear one #27
  4. Canan beloved
  5. Canbaz acrobat, tightrope walker
  6. Canberk sturdy of soul
  7. Canbolat steel-souled
  8. Canbulat steel soul
  9. Candan sincere, heartfelt
  10. Candemir iron-souled, enduring
  11. Caner warm-hearted, beloved man
  12. Canıtez hasty, impatient
  13. Cankat name from Circassian epics
  14. Cankurtaran life-saver, lifeguard
  15. Canpolat soul of steel
  16. Cansever one who loves life and people
  17. Cansız lifeless; listless, weak
  18. Cansu soul + water
  19. Cansun you are dear
  20. Cantekin dear prince
  21. Cantürk Turk at heart
  22. Caymaz one who keeps his word
  23. Cebe armour, war gear
  24. Cebeci Ottoman armourer soldier
  25. Cebecioğlu son of the armourer
  26. Celal majesty, grandeur
  27. Celayır the Jalayir tribe
  28. Cemgil the Cem family
  29. Cengiz from the title Chinggis Khan
  30. Cerit name of a Turkmen tribe
  31. Ceritoğlu son of Cerit
  32. Cerrah surgeon
  33. Cerrahoğlu son of the surgeon
  34. Cesur brave, bold
  35. Cevahir jewels, gems
  36. Cevdet excellence, goodness (given name)
  37. Cevher jewel, gem; essence
  38. Cevheri jeweller
  39. Ceviz walnut
  40. Cevizci walnut seller or grower
  41. Cevizoğlu son of Ceviz (walnut)
  42. Ceyhan the river Ceyhan; a given name
  43. Ceyhun old name of the Amu Darya
  44. Ceylan gazelle
  45. Cezayirli from Algiers / Algeria
  46. Cırık fledgling chick
  47. Ciğerci offal seller, liver vendor
  48. Cihan world, universe
  49. Cihangir world-conqueror
  50. Civan young and handsome
  51. Civaoğlu son of Civa (‘mercury’)
  52. Civelek lively, merry, sociable
  53. Coşan surging, exuberant
  54. Coşar elated, exuberant
  55. Coşkan ebullient, enthusiastic
  56. Coşkun exuberant, enthusiastic
  57. Coşkuner exuberant man
  58. Cömert generous, open-handed
  59. Cumalı Friday-born; or very beautiful
  60. Cumbul splash
  61. Cura smallest bağlama lute
  62. Cüre cura lute; companion

The letter C in Turkish surnames

C is pronounced [dʒ], like the j in English jam, and it is a different letter from Ç [tʃ]; in the Turkish alphabet Ç comes right after C. Without Turkish characters both are typed c, so “Celik” usually stands for Çelik; this index files every name under its Turkish spelling. Native Turkish words seldom begin with C. Most C-words are loans: can ‘soul’ and cihan ‘world’ from Persian, cemal ‘beauty’ from Arabic. Cengiz goes back to the Mongol ruler’s title Činggis.

The surnames under this letter, in figures

The meanings are spread over 23 categories; the largest are “Heart, joy and hope” (11), “Patronymic -oğlu surnames” (7) and “Surnames from nicknames” (6). Borrowed roots are in the majority here: Persian (20), Arabic (19), Mongolic (6), other languages (1), against 16 Turkic. On average they have 6.4 letters, close to the dictionary average of 6.3. The longest is Cankurtaran (11 letters), the shortest Can (3). By vowel harmony, names with mixed vowels form the largest group (25), which in surnames usually signals a compound or a loan; 23 have only back vowels and 14 only front vowels.

By number of letters

Sources

  1. 1Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) · ADNKS, TÜİK Nüfus İsim Portalı: En çok kullanılan soyisimler (ADNKS)