Surname Law

This article is about the Turkish law. For the general concept, see Surname law.

The Surname Law of the Republic of Turkey was adopted on June 21, 1934. The law required all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of hereditary, fixed, surnames. Much of the population, particularly in the cities as well as Turkey's Christian and Jewish citizens, already had surnames, and all families had names by which they were known locally. The Surname Law of 1934 enforced not only the use of official surnames but also stipulated that citizens choose Turkish language names. The law appointed the male head of household as the person who would choose the surname, but there was a lot of variety as to how names were taken or chosen.

Muslims in the Ottoman Empire carried titles such as "Pasha", "Hoca", "Bey", "Hanım", "Efendi", etc. These titles either defined their formal profession (such as Pasha, Hoca, etc.) or their informal status within the society (such as Bey, Hanım, Efendi, etc.). Ottoman prime ministers (Sadrazam/Vezir-î Azam or Grand Vizier), ministers (Nazır/Vezir or Vizier) and other high-ranking civil servants also carried the title Pasha. Retired generals/admirals or high-ranking civil servants continued to carry this title in civilian life. A "Pasha" did not become a "Bey" after retiring from active military or political service.

The articles of the Soy Adı Kanunu stipulated that 1) every Turk must bear his surname in addition to his proper name; 2) the second article stated that the surname must follow the proper name in signing, speaking and writing; 3) and the third article forbade names which were related to military rank and civil officialdom, to tribes and foreign races and ethnicities; as well as surnames that were not suited to customs or which are disgusting or ridiculous. Male heads of households would choose the names, and in their absence, death or mental weakness the wife would do so. They were also against the use of ‘historical names’ without the proper genealogical evidence.

The surname law also forbade certain surnames that contained connotations of foreign cultures, nations, tribes, and religions. New surnames had to be taken from the Turkish language. The surname could be used with the -oğlu ending, and it was forbidden to use Armenian endings such as -yan, Slavic endings such as -of (or -ov), -vich, -ic, Greek endings such as -is, -dis, -pulos, -aki, Persian endings such as -zade, and Arab endings such as -mahdumu, -veled, and -bin, ‘referring to other ethnicities or taken from another language.’ Names such as Arnavut oğlu (the Albanian's son) or Kürtoğlu (the Kurd's son), could not be used. Names of clans or tribes could not be used, or re-used. Additionally, names could not be duplicated in the same district, and, in case of any dispute, the family that registered first got the right to keep the claimed name.

As a result, many Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Bosniaks, Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Georgians and Kurds were forced to adopt last names of a more Turkish rendition, sometimes directly translating their original surnames, or otherwise just replacing markers such as Pontic Greek '-ides' (son of) with Turkish '-oğlu' (Kazantzoglou, Mitroglou, Mouratoglou, etc.).

See also

• List of Ottoman titles and appellations
• Turkification

External links

•  Turkish Wikisource has original text related to this article: Soyadı Kanunu