Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were known locally (often ending with the suffixes -zade, -oğlu or -gil), and were used in similar manner to a surname.
Until it was repealed in 2013, the eldest male was the head of household and Turkish law appointed him to choose the surname.
[2] Instead of a European style surname, Muslims in the Ottoman Empire carried titles such as "Pasha", "Hoca", "Bey", "Hanım", "Agha", "Effendi".
However, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey decided to use the term Soyadı because it denoted the meaning of ancestry, family, or relative.
[10] As a result, many Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians, Bosniaks, Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Georgians, Serbs and Kurds were forced to adopt last names of a more Turkish rendition.