I claim that by the end of this surname story, a famous artist will surprise you.
During the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, the powerful rival principality of the Karamanids was completely eliminated. Turks living in the Konya and Karaman regions were resettled in the Balkans as part of the Ottoman policy of Turkifying the area and to prevent potential future uprisings. Over time, the Karaman Turks became integrated into Balkan society and were well-liked by the local population.
In Balkan languages, the suffix “Ç” conveys sweetness and friendliness, and for the Karaman people, it evolved into “Karamanç.” This suffix added a tone of affection to the name.
Like all things, the Ottoman influence in the Balkans eventually faded. During the Herzegovina Rebellion in 1875, the Balkan Turks decided to return to their ancestral lands. One of them was a small boy known as Karamança Abdi.
Abdi grew up and married a woman named Nimet. They had a son, İsmail, who later married Rikkat, a woman skilled in classical Turkish music, who even taught rhythm lessons to Zeki Müren at one point.
When the Surname Law was enacted, the family wished to adopt the Karamança name as their surname. However, since Ottoman-era names were generally not used as surnames, the “kara” part was dropped, leaving Manço.
Thus, the family’s new surname became Manço, and they named their son Barış.
So there you have it: Barış Manço, whose roots trace from Karaman to the Balkans. Though the name changed, the family never forgot its origins.
