According to his own memoirs (http://www.nihal-atsiz.com/yazi/atsiz-soyadinin-oykusu.html) when Huseyin Nihal Atsız took his surname (which is when this law was first issued):

• Nobody could take surnames ending with "oglu (son of)"
• Nobody could take names of historical people (i.e. mostly heroes) as surnames.
• Nobody could take surnames which were already taken by some others in the same region.

Also, from personal field researches in my father's and mother's sides' villages, I know that most of the time state officials did not even bother going to rural areas, or when they went they did not really ask people what names did they want. In several villages in Balikesir province, all the surnames are insult words like "Bitli (pedicular), Pireli (flea-ridden), Cakaloglu (son of jackal), Hovarda (womanizer. Funny thing is, this surname was given to the very orthodox imam of the village, whose name is still remembered to this day as "Hovarda Imam", which obviously means "Womanizer Imam"), Pipi (penis)" etc.

Some of the restrictions were loosened or were not recognized by the officials also, there are lots of -oglu's due to this, and there are lots of people with ridiculous surnames with interesting stories, such as a person surnamed "Birsey (Something)". The old man, did not want to bother with the bureaucracy, and when the state official asked "what surname do you want?", he answered "I don't know, make it something". The official won the 'not my effing job' prize, and actually surnamed the guy as 'Something'.

To start with, your ancestor in 1934 would have to have been the head of the household (male and preferably a grandfather). For most families, surnames were extremely flexible and could cover anything from professions and characteristics to historical figures - given that the word was Turkish.

It was more complicated for minority groups such as Greeks, Kurds, Jews and Armenians. Note also that unlike the majority population, Turkish Christians and Jews tended to have surnames already. On one hand, Attaturk's reform intended to foster a distinct sense of "Turkishness", and rejected surnames that evoked other cultures or religions. On the other, it seemed perfectly fine for these groups to use religious or foreign names provided that they were translated directly into Turkish. The surname law was as controversial then as it is today, when the Syriac community is in a legal struggle to retain their cultural surnames.

A few sources on this but here's a main one:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00263200701568253?journalCode=fmes20

I always remember that my introduction to the idiosyncratic nature of Turkish surnames was a Turkish character in Geoff Ryman's 253 whose surname was Cilekbileckli- "Perfection With Steel Wrists". Can anyone tell me if this is a legit translation/legit Turkish surname?

If anyone is interested, i found this book called "Cumhuriyet Tarihi Soyadı Hikayeleri" by Prof. Dr. Emine Gürsoy Naskali. It collects interesting stories about how people got their surnames with surname law. Sadly i dont think it is available in english. (Edit: I found a preview here but it only has introduction)

I wonder if there are any books about how surname law was implemented? Just yesterday my father asked me about it, but i couldn't find anything focusing on surname law. (Turkish books would be appreciated.)