I was wanting to start a post on our Turkish names or surnames, (or those of our Turkish aquaintances!) and what they mean, or what they translate to.

My surname is ALTINSOY, now I know that ALTIN is gold, or golden, but I cannot decide on an appropriate English word for 'SOY'. It means family name, but that does seem a bit long-winded, 'Golden Family name'! I was hoping that some clever person out there could tell me a shorter one worded meaning that I could use.
People have suggested 'Kin' or 'Clan', but I'm not keen on them, they're a bit tribal! Oh, tribe was also suggested!

Any ideas?

soy: family or ancestry

kin, family, ancestry bare all valid translations for soy. Surnames in Turkey were introduced after the foundation of the republic after 1920, so everyone had to get a surname one way or another. And the surnames had to be quite distinguishing, so they probably tried to produce many different combinations for avoiding clustering around some popular surnames. Mine is akgül, which means white rose. I think altınsoy is a more charismatic one

Thank you, my hubby is from AKSARAY, which is the white palace. I always tease him and tell him that he's from the 'White House', (he's not the biggest fan of George Bush!), no offence meant to anyone, of course!

I was smiling about the soy, because in Greece we use exact the same word! Soy means the family, the keen. So your hubby's surname is the Golden Family Nice surnameAksaray is nice place as well

what does akyün mean..? Thanks!

It could be the White Wool...

Okay!.. Thank you very much!!

My Turkish friend's surname is 'Yilmaz' I believe this is very common in Turkey, but what does it mean - can anyone tell me?

"Yilmaz" means person who does not get tired of never gives up.