Changing Your Name or Surname in Turkey: Court Procedure and Rules for New Citizens

A Turkish citizen can change his or her first name or surname only by a court decision, and only by showing a justified reason (Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, Art. 27). The case is brought in the civil court of first instance at the applicant's place of residence against the civil registry directorate; the change is entered in the civil register and announced on the official announcements portal, and anyone harmed by it may sue to have it set aside within one year of learning of it. A foreigner's name is governed by the law of his or her own country, so a Turkish court cannot change the name of someone who is not a Turkish citizen — but people who acquire Turkish citizenship can choose how their name is registered at that moment, and those whose Turkish and foreign documents show different names can obtain an official certificate linking the two.

Name questions reach us mainly from new citizens and dual nationals: a name transliterated differently on the Turkish identity card and the foreign passport, a wish to adopt or to drop a Turkish name, a surname after marriage or divorce, a child whose surname differs from the parent he or she lives with. This guide explains the court procedure, what counts as a justified reason, the options at naturalisation, surnames in marriage and for children, and how to deal with mismatched documents.

• Rule: a change of name may be requested from the judge only on justified grounds (Art. 27).
• Court: civil court of first instance at the applicant's residence; the civil registry and the public prosecutor take part.
• Publicity: the change is recorded in the civil register and announced on the Press Advertisement Authority's portal (Art. 27, as amended in November 2024).
• Status unchanged: a change of name does not alter personal status — parentage, marriage, citizenship (Art. 27).
• Third parties: a person harmed may sue to annul the change within one year of learning of it (Art. 27).
• Protection of a name: a person whose name is disputed or misused can sue for a declaration, an order to stop and damages (Art. 26).
• Foreigners: name governed by national law; no change by a Turkish court.
• New citizens: may choose the form of name registered on naturalisation; a name-equivalence certificate links old and new names.

Legal status of this guide. It reflects Articles 26 and 27 of the Turkish Civil Code as in force. The rules on a married woman's surname have been in flux since a Constitutional Court ruling annulled the former provision, and administrative correction of names without a court case has been possible only under temporary provisions; both should be checked for the current position. Last updated: October 2026.

In this guide

• The rule: a court and a reason
• What counts as a justified reason
• The court procedure
• Effects of the decision
• Correction or change?
• Names when acquiring Turkish citizenship
• Different names on Turkish and foreign documents
• Surname in marriage and after divorce
• Children's names and surnames
• Foreigners living in Turkey
• Frequently asked questions

The rule: a court and a reason

In Turkish law the name — first name and surname together — is part of a person's civil status and is recorded in the civil register. It is treated as a matter of public order as well as of personality: a name is how the State and third parties identify a person, so it cannot be altered by declaration or by simple use.

Article 27 states the principle in one sentence: a change of name may be requested from the judge only on the basis of justified reasons. Three consequences follow.

• The civil registry cannot change a name on request, outside the special cases the law provides.
• A deed poll, a notarial declaration or a foreign administrative change has no effect in the Turkish register by itself.
• The court has discretion: it weighs the applicant's interest against the public interest in stable identification.

"Name" covers both first name and surname. A person may ask to change one or both, to add or remove a second first name, or to correct the spelling.

What counts as a justified reason

The Code does not list the reasons. Courts have accepted, among others:

• The name actually used. The applicant has long been known in family, work and social life by a different name from the one registered. This is the commonest ground, and is proved by witnesses and documents — diplomas, employment records, correspondence.
• A ridiculous, offensive or burdensome name that exposes the person to mockery or embarrassment.
• Confusion. The name is shared with someone notorious, or with another person in the same community so that the two are constantly confused.
• Religion, belief and identity. A name that conflicts with the person's religion after conversion, or with his or her cultural identity; names given under pressure of circumstances.
• Naturalised citizens. A foreign name that is difficult to pronounce or write in Turkish and hinders integration — or, conversely, a Turkish name adopted at naturalisation that the person no longer wishes to carry, having always been known by the original name.
• Consistency with foreign documents. A dual national whose name differs between countries, causing practical difficulties.
• Family reasons. A child's surname after divorce; taking the surname of the person who raised the applicant; dissociation from a parent who committed a serious offence against the applicant.
• Gender. A first name consistent with the applicant's gender, including after a court-authorised change of legal sex.

The European Court of Human Rights and the Turkish Constitutional Court treat the name as part of private life, and over the past decade Turkish courts have moved towards asking whether there is a real reason not to allow the change, rather than requiring a compelling one. Applications are refused chiefly where the purpose appears to be evading creditors, a criminal record or official identification; where the name sought is contrary to law, morality or national culture, or is a title or rank; or where a person seeks to change a name already changed by court without a new reason.

The court procedure

1. Court. The civil court of first instance (asliye hukuk mahkemesi) of the applicant's place of residence.
2. Parties. The applicant sues the civil registry directorate. The public prosecutor attends, because civil-register cases concern public order, and a registry official is heard.
3. Petition. It states the current and the requested name and the reasons, and lists the evidence. For a minor, the parents apply together as legal representatives; if they disagree, or after divorce, the court considers the child's interest and hears the other parent.
4. Evidence. Witnesses who know the applicant by the name used; documents bearing that name; where relevant, foreign passports and civil-status records, medical or expert opinion. The court obtains the registry record and usually a criminal record and police inquiry to exclude an improper purpose.
5. Hearing. One or two hearings are usual. The case is not adversarial in substance, and is decided within months rather than years in most courts.
6. Judgment. If granted, the judgment becomes final after the appeal period, and the court sends it to the registry.
7. Registration and announcement. The change is entered in the civil register and announced on the announcements portal of the Press Advertisement Authority. The announcement states the court, the date and number of the decision, the place of registration, date of birth and parents' names of the person, the former name and surname, and the new name and surname given by the court (Art. 27, as amended by Law No. 7532).

A representative can file and conduct the case under a power of attorney that expressly authorises it; see our guide to powers of attorney for Turkey. Citizens living abroad can therefore apply without travelling, with witnesses heard in Turkey or their statements obtained through judicial assistance.

Can the same name be changed twice?

Civil-register legislation provides that a correction of the same entry can be sued for only once. Courts apply this to prevent repeated changes of the same name on the same grounds; a new and different justified reason may still be examined. Choose the new name with care.

Effects of the decision

• Personal status does not change with the name (Art. 27). The person remains the same legal subject: marriage, parentage, citizenship, debts, contracts, criminal record and property all continue.
• Family members. A change of surname by a married man extends to his wife's and minor children's surname under the rules on the family name; adult children are not affected automatically. A change of first name affects only the applicant.
• Documents. The identity card, passport, driving licence, bank records, title deeds, diplomas, tax and social security records, vehicle registration and — for those who hold them — foreign documents must be updated. The identity number does not change, which makes updating within Turkey largely automatic through linked systems; title deeds are updated on application to the land registry with the judgment.
• Third parties. A person harmed by the change may bring an action for annulment of the decision within one year of the day he or she learned of it (Art. 27). The typical claimant is someone who already bears the name and whose interests are prejudiced — a family with a distinctive surname, a business.
• Abroad. A dual national must have the change recognised or registered in the other country under its rules; some countries simply accept the Turkish judgment with apostille, others require their own procedure.

Correction or change?

Not every problem needs a name-change case in the full sense.

• Clerical errors made by the registry when entering data from the underlying document can be corrected administratively by the registry on the basis of that document.
• Errors in the underlying record — a misspelt name, a wrong letter — require a court case for correction of the civil register, which follows the same procedure but turns on proving the error, not a justified reason.
• Temporary administrative schemes. At intervals, temporary provisions added to the Population Services Law have allowed spelling errors, and names and surnames that are contrary to general morality or regarded as ridiculous, to be corrected by provincial or district administrative boards on application, without a court case, during a fixed period. Whether such a scheme is open at a given time must be checked with the civil registry.

Names when acquiring Turkish citizenship

A person who acquires Turkish citizenship is entered in the civil register for the first time, and the form of the name is fixed at that point.

• Keeping your name. A new citizen may keep his or her existing first name and surname. They are written in Turkish letters; where the original uses characters outside the Turkish alphabet or another script, the registry transliterates it, and the result may differ from the spelling in the foreign passport.
• Taking a Turkish name. A new citizen may choose a Turkish first name and surname during the citizenship procedure. This is a choice, not a requirement.
• The surname must comply with surname legislation if a new one is chosen: it must be a single surname suited to that purpose, and certain categories — ranks, titles, names of tribes or foreign nations, words contrary to morality — are excluded.
• Family consistency. Spouses and children naturalised together are registered under a consistent family surname.
• Afterwards. Once registered, the name can be changed only through the court procedure above. A new citizen who took a Turkish name and regrets it, or who kept the original and now wants a Turkish one, has a recognised justified reason — but needs a judgment.

Decide before the file is finalised and check the spelling on the draft documents: correcting it afterwards costs a lawsuit. The citizenship routes are described in our guides to citizenship by investment and citizenship by descent.

Different names on Turkish and foreign documents

Dual nationals and new citizens very often hold a Turkish identity card in one name and a foreign passport in another — because a Turkish name was adopted, because of transliteration, because one country records a married name and the other does not, or because a patronymic or middle name is handled differently. The consequences are practical: airline tickets and visas, bank accounts and transfers, title deeds bought before naturalisation in the foreign name, diplomas, inheritance.

The tools are:

• The name-equivalence certificate (isim denklik belgesi). For those who acquired Turkish citizenship and whose name was changed in the process, and for multiple citizens whose names differ, the civil registry issues, on application, an official document stating that the person with the former or foreign name and the person with the Turkish name are one and the same. It is the standard document for banks, land registries and consulates.
• The multiple-citizenship note. A dual national should have the foreign citizenship noted in the family register (Citizenship Law Art. 44), which links the two identities officially.
• Updating title deeds and accounts opened in the foreign name, using the citizenship decision and the equivalence certificate.
• Travel. Book each journey in the name on the passport you will show for that flight; enter and leave Turkey on the Turkish document as a Turkish citizen.
• Aligning the names where the mismatch is a continuing burden — by a name-change case in Turkey to match the foreign name, or by the other country's procedure to match the Turkish one.

Surname in marriage and after divorce

For decades the Civil Code provided that a woman takes her husband's surname on marriage, with the option of using her own surname in front of it. The Constitutional Court annulled that provision as contrary to equality, with effect from early 2024, after a long line of rulings — its own and those of the European Court of Human Rights — holding that a married woman must be able to use her own surname alone. Since then, courts have granted married women's applications to use only their own surname on the basis of those rulings, and legislative proposals to regulate the matter have been made. Check the rule in force at the time of your marriage or application; where the registry will not record the surname you want, a court application on the basis of the constitutional case law is the remedy.

• Foreign spouses. A foreign woman who marries a Turkish man in Turkey is recorded in the marriage register; her surname in her own country's documents is governed by her national law, not by the Turkish rule.
• After divorce a woman resumes the surname she bore before the marriage. She may ask the court for permission to keep her former husband's surname if she shows an interest in doing so — professional reputation, sharing the children's surname — and that it will not harm him; he may ask for the permission to be withdrawn if circumstances change.
• After annulment of the marriage the divorce rules on surname apply; see our guide to annulment of marriage in Turkey.

For the financial and custody consequences of divorce see our guide to divorce in Turkey for foreigners.

Children's names and surnames

• First name. Chosen by the parents and registered at birth. Names contrary to national culture, morality, custom or that offend the public cannot be registered. A minor's first name is changed by court on the parents' application.
• Surname where the parents are married. The child bears the family surname.
• Parents not married. The position of the child's surname where paternity is later established has been reshaped by Constitutional Court rulings; ask at registration. See our guide to paternity in Turkey.
• After divorce. The child keeps the family surname. Following Constitutional Court and Court of Cassation rulings, a mother who has custody may apply to the court for the child to bear her surname where this serves the child's best interests — for example, where the child lives with her and the father is absent. The court hears the father and considers the child's own view. See our guide to child custody in Turkey.
• Adoption. A minor takes the adopter's surname, and the adopter may give the child a new first name. See our guide to adoption in Turkey.
• On reaching majority, a person may apply in his or her own right.

Foreigners living in Turkey

Turkish conflict-of-laws rules refer questions of personal status, including the name, to a person's national law. For a foreign national this means:

• the name is whatever the home country's documents say. Residence permits, work permits, title deeds, tax and social security records are issued in the passport name;
• a Turkish court will not entertain a name-change application by a non-citizen, because there is no Turkish civil-register entry to change and the matter belongs to the national law;
• a name changed abroad — by marriage, divorce, deed poll or court order — is updated in Turkish records by presenting the new passport together with the official document evidencing the change, apostilled and translated. Each institution updates separately: the migration directorate (a new residence card), the tax office, banks, the land registry, the social security institution, the employer's work permit file. Do the migration record first; the others rely on the foreigner identity number, which stays the same;
• where the same person appears in Turkish records under two spellings — one from an old passport and one from a new one — ask the migration directorate to merge the records, to avoid a false "overstay" or a missing entry record;
• stateless persons and refugees are, for these purposes, generally subject to the law of their domicile or habitual residence.

Name mismatch between your Turkish and foreign documents, or want to change the name registered at naturalisation? Send copies of both documents and tell us what you want the name to be. Message Yayla Law on WhatsApp or use the contact form. The court application can be made without your attending.

Frequently asked questions

How can I change my name in Turkey?

If you are a Turkish citizen, by a lawsuit in the civil court of first instance at your place of residence, showing a justified reason. The decision is registered and officially announced.

What is a justified reason?

Typically: being known by another name, a name that causes embarrassment or confusion, religious or cultural identity, alignment with foreign documents, and family circumstances. The court has discretion.

How long does it take?

Usually a few months, with one or two hearings, plus the time for the judgment to become final and be registered.

Can a foreigner change their name in Turkey?

No. A foreigner's name is governed by the national law. A change made abroad is recorded in Turkey by presenting the new passport and the legalised document proving the change.

Do I have to take a Turkish name when I become a citizen?

No. You may keep your name, written in Turkish letters, or choose a Turkish one. After registration, a change requires a court decision.

My Turkish ID and foreign passport show different names. What can I do?

Obtain a name-equivalence certificate from the civil registry and have your other citizenship noted in the register. If the mismatch remains a burden, align the names by a court case in Turkey or under the other country's procedure.

Can a married woman use only her own surname?

The provision requiring a wife to take her husband's surname was annulled by the Constitutional Court. Check the rule currently in force; where the registry refuses, a court application based on the constitutional case law is available.

Can my child take my surname after divorce?

A mother with custody can ask the court for this where it serves the child's best interests. The father is heard.

Does changing my name affect my debts, property or criminal record?

No. Personal status does not change. Your identity number stays the same and all rights and obligations continue.

Legal basis and sources

• Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, Articles 26, 27, 173, 314 and 321 — official consolidated text at mevzuat.gov.tr.
• Population Services Law No. 5490 (civil-register entries and corrections); Surname Law No. 2525.
• Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901, Article 44, and its implementing regulation.
• International Private and Procedural Law No. 5718.

This article provides general legal information on Turkish law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Rules on married women's and children's surnames are evolving and should be confirmed at the time of application.