Türkiye Soyadları A sourced dictionary of Turkish surnames

Surname index·Letter

Surnames beginning with P

Only 56 surnames begin with P, 1.6% of all entries, which makes it one of the rarer initials. Only one of them is in the national top 30: Polat, ranked 19th with 273,871 people (TÜİK ADNKS 2025).

Surnames
56
in this index
In the national top 30
11
ADNKS 2025
Most common
Polat
273,871 people

56 surnames in Turkish alphabetical order

  1. Paçacı seller of trotters
  2. Pak pure, clean
  3. Pakdil pure-hearted
  4. Paker pure-hearted man
  5. Paksoy pure lineage
  6. Pala short curved sword, cutlass
  7. Palabıyık with a handlebar moustache
  8. Palalı bearing a broadsword
  9. Palazoğlu son of Palaz (gosling)
  10. Pamir mountain range in Central Asia
  11. Pamuk cotton
  12. Pamukçu cotton grower or trader
  13. Pandur guard, constable
  14. Parlak shining, brilliant
  15. Parlar shining, gleaming
  16. Parmak finger
  17. Parmaksız fingerless
  18. Pars leopard
  19. Pasin place name in Erzurum
  20. Paşa pasha
  21. Paşalı a pasha’s retainer
  22. Paydaş partner, shareholder
  23. Pazar market, bazaar
  24. Pehlivan wrestler; strongman
  25. Pehlivanlı wrestler + -lı
  26. Pehlivanoğlu son of the wrestler
  27. Pek firm, sturdy
  28. Pekcan hardy, of firm spirit
  29. Pekdemir hard iron; ‘lord iron’
  30. Pekel firm hand; strong land
  31. Peker sturdy, enduring man
  32. Pekin trusted, reliable
  33. Pekkan of sturdy blood
  34. Pekmezci molasses maker
  35. Pekşen very cheerful
  36. Pektaş hard stone
  37. Pelin wormwood
  38. Penbe pink
  39. Pepe stammerer
  40. Perçin rivet; firm bond
  41. Peri fairy; very beautiful
  42. Perin winged, fairy-like
  43. Petekkaya honeycombed rock (village)
  44. Pınar spring
  45. Pınarbaşı head of the spring
  46. Pir elder, master, founder
  47. Pirhasan Pir (elder) Hasan
  48. Pirinççi rice dealer or brass-worker
  49. Pirinççioğlu son of the rice seller or brass worker
  50. Pişkin well cooked; seasoned
  51. Pişmiş seasoned, matured
  52. Polat steel; strong as steel #19
  53. Polatkan Pulad Khan; steel-blooded
  54. Poyraz north-east wind
  55. Poyrazoğlu son of Poyraz
  56. Pusat arms, war gear

The letter P in Turkish surnames

P is uncommon at the start of native Turkish words, and some that have it once began with b: pek ‘very; firm’ continues Old Turkic bek ‘firm, solid’ and lives on in names such as Pekdemir. Most P-words are loans, above all from Persian: pehlivan ‘wrestler, champion’, pamuk ‘cotton’, polat ‘steel’ (Persian pūlād). The surnames Pehlivan, Pamuk and Polat rest on these words.

The surnames under this letter, in figures

The meanings are spread over 27 categories; the largest are “Food, market and trade” (6), “Appearance, body and strength” (6) and “Virtue and integrity” (4). Turkic and borrowed roots are evenly matched: 23 Turkic against 32 from other languages: Persian (21), Greek (3), other languages (3), French (2), Arabic (2), Armenian (1). On average they have 6.3 letters, close to the dictionary average of 6.3. The longest are Pehlivanoğlu and Pirinççioğlu (12 letters), the shortest Pak, Pek and Pir (3). In vowel harmony, names with only back vowels lead (26) over front-vowel names (17); 13 mix the two, usually a sign of a compound or a loan.

By number of letters

Sources

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