Surname index·Letter
Surnames beginning with L
Only 9 surnames begin with L, 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
- 9
- in this index
- In the national top 30
- 0
- ADNKS 2025
9 surnames in Turkish alphabetical order
The letter L in Turkish surnames
Native Turkish words do not begin with l or r, so L-words are loans. Most come from Arabic (latif ‘gentle, fine’; lütuf ‘favour’, the source of the name Lütfi) and Persian (lale ‘tulip’), others from Greek, Italian and French (liman ‘harbour’ is Greek). L-surnames are correspondingly rare, and they usually rest on such loans or on names from other languages.
The surnames under this letter, in figures
The meanings are spread over 6 categories; the largest are “Birds of prey” (2), “Military ranks and roles” (2) and “Patronymic -oğlu surnames” (2). Borrowed roots are in the majority here: Persian (3), Arabic (3), other languages (1), against 2 Turkic. On average they have 6.1 letters, close to the dictionary average of 6.3. The longest is Levendoğlu (10 letters), the shortest Lale and Levi (4). In vowel harmony, names with only front vowels lead (5) over back-vowel names (0); 4 mix the two, usually a sign of a compound or a loan.