Surname index·Letter
Surnames beginning with I
Only 11 surnames begin with I, 0.3% of all entries, which makes it one of the rarer initials. None of them is in the national top 30 of TÜİK ADNKS 2025, so each is rarer than every name on that list.
- Surnames
- 11
- in this index
- In the national top 30
- 0
- ADNKS 2025
11 surnames in Turkish alphabetical order
The letter I in Turkish surnames
I is the dotless i: capital I, small ı, the back unrounded close vowel [ɯ]. It is a letter of its own, separate from dotted İ/i, and the pair has its own case rules: the small form of I is ı, the capital of i is İ. Few words begin with ı, among them ılık ‘lukewarm’, ırmak ‘river’ and ışık ‘light’, so I-surnames such as Işık and Irmak are rare. Typed without Turkish characters, Işık becomes “Isik”; the search on this site accepts both spellings.
The surnames under this letter, in figures
The meanings are spread over 7 categories; the largest are “Light and fire” (3), “Wind, rain and lightning” (2) and “Water, sea and rivers” (2). Turkic roots dominate (8 surnames, 72.7%); the rest come from other languages (2), Greek (1). On average they have 5.9 letters, shorter than the dictionary average of 6.3. The longest are Ilıcalı, Işıklar and Işıldar (7 letters), the shortest Işık (4). In vowel harmony, names with only back vowels lead (10) over front-vowel names (0); 1 mix the two, usually a sign of a compound or a loan.