Turkish Surnames in Lebanon: The Example of Şuf (Chouf)

Abstract

Onomastics is the branch of science that examines the emergence of names, the way they are given to beings and concepts, their form, meaning, structure and origin, taking into account social relations. Surnames are included under the title of personal names in the science of names. In 1934, after the Surname Law was enacted in Turkey, the first studies on surnames were made in the form of surname lists. As time passed, studies on surnames deepened. Over time, studies on surnames have also focused on Turkish surnames outside Turkey. The population of this study consists of the surnames of 138.900 voters, excluding the Druze identity, in the settlement of Chouf, which constitutes one of the twenty-six electoral districts of Lebanon. These surnames were scanned and the surnames containing at least one Turkish unit or morpheme were analyzed in terms of form, meaning, structure and origin. At the end of the study, 162 surnames with at least one Turkish element were identified. These surnames consist of 417 units and morphemes in total. Of these units and morphemes, 286 are Turkish, 75 are Arabic, 36 are Armenian, 11 are Persian, 5 are Greek, 2 are French, 1 is English and 1 is Syriac. Surnames with morphemes from more than one language can be called mixed words in this respect. In terms of structure, it was determined that 2 of the surnames were simple, 139 were derived and 21 were compound. It has been determined that mostly Turkish occupational names are used as surnames and these surnames naturally carry the construction suffix +ci in their structure.