Of 70 million Turks living in Turkey, more than 4% (3 million) were named either Mehmet (male) or Fatma (female) at birth!
According to the latest statistics gathered and published by the Turkish Citizenship Bureau's Directorate, there are now 1,537,458 males named Mehmet among living males in Turkey. The personal-name Mustafa follows Mehmet with 1,195,232 recorded occurrences -- then come the personal-names Ahmet, Ali, and Hüseyin.
As for the ladies... at the top of the popular personal-names list is Fatma -- which collected 1,529,179 'votes'. Ayse followed Fatma at 1,161,016 uses -- with Emine, Hatice, and Zeynep rounding out the top five most popular names.
Baby names have begun changing in the past 15 years -- with new baby-names beating out old names for popularity. For example, when you just consider male and female children born between 1990 and 2000... for the first time, the name Emre (for boys) and Büsra and Merve for girls -- have appeared among the top 5 baby-names. And if you only consider the period 2000-2005, Furkan (for boys) and Irem (for girls) are baby-names that have appeared in the top 5, also for the first time.
Turkish Family Names
According to the same statistics, the family-name Yılmaz is 'Top of the Pops' -- being the surname used by 1,025,196 families. The 'Yilmaz' surname is followed in 'popularity' by Kaya, Demir, Sahin, and Çelik.
So...We guess that makes 'Fatma and Mehmet Yilmaz' the Turkish equivalent of 'Mary and John Doe'...eh?
[Click following to access a fully illustrated HTML version of Turkish Baby-names and Family-names.]
Jim and (co-author) Perihan Masters are a husband and wife team, living on the Aegean Coast of Turkey just 50 miles south of Izmir. Jim was born in Shanghai, China -- of American military parentage. Peri was born on the Black Sea coast of Turkey near Trabzon, of Turkish military parentage...Enticed by a Financial Times advertisement, Jim joined a NATO sponsored enterprise in Ankara in 1974 where he met the beautiful and brainy Perihan, a rising young Turkish banking executive. Settled now in the heart of what was once the ancient Ionian Empire -- the couple live an idyllic life by the sea.. writing, drawing and painting, teaching English, and providing computing service support to local businesses. They also sponsor the MSNBC award-winning Learning Practical Turkish Website which has built an enthusiastic international following of devoted Turkophiles and inquisitive language students of all ages.
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