No. 1 Turkish Baby Names by Year for Boys and Girls, 2018-2025

Yusuf was the most given boys’ name in TÜİK’s yearly top-30 lists from 2018 through 2021, and Zeynep was the most given girls’ name through 2022. Alparslan took the top spot for boys in 2022 and kept it through 2025. For girls, the first place changed in 2023, 2024 and 2025, ending with Alya.

How the number one is measured

The number one is the name in position 1 of each year’s national top-30 list, with boys and girls kept separate. Every year is its own list, so a name can hold first place for several years and then lose it. The counts quoted below are the published counts for that year’s list. Because the ranking uses positions, a close race at the top can change first place even when the counts are near each other.

Boys

• 2018 to 2021: [Yusuf](/names/yusuf/). Yusuf held first place for four years. Its published count was 9,583 in 2018 and 7,069 in 2021.
• 2022 to 2025: [Alparslan](/names/alparslan/). Alparslan moved into first place in 2022 with 8,318, ahead of Yusuf in second with 6,360. Its count reached 8,941 in 2023 and was 7,509 in 2025.

Girls

• 2018 to 2022: [Zeynep](/names/zeynep/). Zeynep was first in each of these five years, the longest run at the top for any girls’ name in the lists. Its count was 14,183 in 2018 and 8,850 in 2022.
• 2023: Asel. Asel took first place with 8,104. Zeynep dropped to second with 7,602.
• 2024: [Defne](/names/defne/). Defne took first place with 7,447, ahead of Asel in second with 7,337. Zeynep fell to third with 6,523.
• 2025: [Alya](/names/alya/). Alya took first place with 8,739, after finishing 16th in 2024. Defne was second with 7,716.

When the number one changed

Across 2018 to 2025, the top spot changed four times:

• 2022, boys: Yusuf gave way to Alparslan.
• 2023, girls: Zeynep gave way to Asel.
• 2024, girls: Asel gave way to Defne.
• 2025, girls: Defne gave way to Alya.

The boys’ top spot changed once, and the girls’ top spot changed three times in a row. Before 2022, Yusuf and Zeynep had held first place for four and five years. From 2022 through 2025, Alparslan kept the boys’ first place, while the girls’ first place moved in each of the last three years of the data. Readers who want the full picture can compare the yearly lists, since a single number one hides how close the names beneath it were.

Where the data comes from

The rankings come from TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), which publishes newborn name statistics for each year at TÜİK newborn name lists. The data covers only the top 30 names for boys and for girls in each year, not every birth. It cannot show how many babies received a name outside those 30 places, why families chose a name, or how names differ by region. A number one is a position within the top-30 list, so it says nothing about names that were not in that list.

Sources

1. TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute) – newborn-name lists, 2018–2025