The most common surname in Turkey is “Yılmaz”, whilst among men the most popular first name is “Mehmet” and among women the most common is “Fatma”, although these last two have been losing ground in recent years, according to the latest official data on the Turkish population for the year 2025, which was released recently.
According to official data from the address-based population registration system, the most common surname in Turkey in 2025 was once again Yılmaz, with 1,177,896 people registered as having it; it was followed by Kaya, with 899,722 citizens bearing it, and Demir, with 876,934, as reported by the public television channel TRT Haber.
Among the most popular surnames, Çelik also stood out, used by 717,655 people; Yıldız, with 697,080; Şahin, with 688,214; Yıldırım, with 666,723; Öztürk, with 586,831; Aydın, with 581,387; and Özdemir, with 556,378. Further down the rankings, we also find other common surnames such as Arslan, Doğan, Kılıç, Aslan, Çetin, Kara, Kurt, Koç, Polat and Şimşek.
Mehmet: the most popular male name
As for male names, once again Mehmet was the most popular in the country, with 1,271,896 men bearing the name. Mustafa took second place with 1,057,634, followed by Ahmet, with 857,105 people. The name Ali also stood out, used by 736,478 men, whilst Hüseyin and Hasan have 571,822 and 531,386 bearers, respectively.
The ranking of male names continues with Murat, found among 527,648 people; Yusuf, with 526,127; İbrahim, with 505,052; and İsmail, with 434,992. Other notable male names in the ranking but in lower positions are Ömer, Ramazan, Osman, Abdullah, Fatih, Emre, Halil, Hakan, Süleyman and Adem.
Fatma, the most common Turkish female name
As for female names, Fatma retained the top spot for another year with 1,152,158 women registered with that first name. Ayşe took second place with 906,873, whilst Emine reached 776,708 people. Other female names also stood out, such as Hatice, with 709,426, and Zeynep, with 707,953.
The list of the most common female names continues with Elif, which is used by 556,208 women, whilst Meryem, Merve, Zehra and Esra also featured among the most common with 320,576, 293,380, 268,716 and 248,211 users, respectively. The ranking also features other Turkish female names, albeit in lower positions, such as Özlem, Büşra, Yasemin, Melek, Hülya, Kübra, Sultan, Dilek, Leyla and Rabia.
Although they continue to top the statistics as the most popular names in Turkey, the records actually show a gradual decline in the use of Mehmet and Fatma in recent years. Thus, whilst the number of men named Mehmet fell from 1,361,958 in 2018 to 1,271,896 in 2025 (90,062 fewer), in the case of Fatma, the figure fell from 1,235,828 to 1,152,158 over the same period (i.e. 83,670 fewer). In contrast, the surname Yılmaz not only remains at the top of the ranking but has been steadily increasing in recent years, with more than 43,000 new bearers since 2018.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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