Surname index·Letter
Surnames beginning with V
Only 16 surnames begin with V, 0.5% 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
- 16
- in this index
- In the national top 30
- 0
- ADNKS 2025
16 surnames in Turkish alphabetical order
- Vanlı from Van
- Vanlıoğlu son of the man from Van
- Varan one who arrives, attains
- Vardar name of a Balkan river
- Vardarlı from the Vardar valley
- Vargı conclusion, inference
- Varlı rich, well-off
- Varlıer man of means
- Varlık existence, wealth
- Varol “may you live!”, a blessing
- Vatan homeland
- Vatansever patriot
- Velioğlu son of Veli
- Verdi “(God) gave”
- Vlastos shoot, sprout
- Vural strike and take
The letter V in Turkish surnames
Old Turkic had no initial v, yet Turkish has native V-words. Some continue an old b (var < bar ‘there is’, ver- < bér- ‘to give’); in others a v grew in front of the vowel, as in vur- ‘to strike’ beside Old Turkic ur-. The surnames Vural and Varol show these words, while Vatansever joins Arabic vatan ‘homeland’ to Turkish sever ‘who loves’. W, which is not in the Turkish alphabet, is filed under V in this index.
The surnames under this letter, in figures
One category stands out by meaning: “Fortune, blessing and fame”, with 5 surnames, ahead of “Place-based -lı/-li surnames” (3). Turkic roots dominate (9 surnames, 60.0%); the rest come from other languages (3), Arabic (2), Greek (1). On average they have 6.3 letters, close to the dictionary average of 6.3. The longest is Vatansever (10 letters), the shortest Vanlı, Varan and Vargı and others (5). In vowel harmony, names with only back vowels lead (12) over front-vowel names (1); 3 mix the two, usually a sign of a compound or a loan.