These five elements come up again and again when you browse Turkic names. Each has its own page listing every published name that contains it.<\/p>\n
Ay<\/em> means ‘moon’ (and ‘month’). It is native Turkic vocabulary: our sources trace it to Proto-Turkic, and it appears as Turkish ay<\/em>, Kazakh and Kyrgyz \u0430\u0439<\/em>, Uzbek oy<\/em> and Uyghur \u0626\u0627\u064a<\/em>. It is one of the most productive parts of girls’ names, as in Aynur<\/a> and Aigerim<\/a>, and also appears in boys’ names such as Aybek<\/a>. All names with ay<\/a>.<\/p>\n G\u00fcl<\/em> is a Persian loanword meaning ‘rose’ or ‘flower’. Turkish writes it g\u00fcl<\/em>, Kazakh and Kyrgyz \u0433\u04af\u043b<\/em>, Uyghur \u06af\u06c8\u0644<\/em>. It is typical of girls’ names such as G\u00fclbahar<\/a>. All names with g\u00fcl<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nur<\/em> is an Arabic word for ‘light’ that reached the Turkic languages through Persian, Chagatai or Ottoman Turkish. Kazakh writes \u043d\u04b1\u0440<\/em>, Uyghur \u0646\u06c7\u0631<\/em>. It is used in both girls’ and boys’ names, for example Nursultan<\/a>. All names with nur<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bek<\/em> (Turkish bey<\/em>) is an old Turkic title meaning ‘lord’ or ‘master’, traced in our sources to Proto-Turkic. In Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uzbek it ends many boys’ names, such as Aybek<\/a> and Nurbek<\/a>. All names with bek<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jan<\/em> (Turkish can<\/em>, Kazakh and Kyrgyz \u0436\u0430\u043d<\/em>, Uzbek jon<\/em>) comes from Persian \u062c\u0627\u0646<\/em> ‘soul, life’. It appears in names such as Aruzhan<\/a> and Nurjan<\/a>. All names with this element<\/a>.<\/p>\n A compound such as ‘moon + light’ gives the literal parts. The sources rarely describe a single ‘intended’ meaning for the whole name, so our pages show the parts and only add an interpretation when a source states one.<\/p>\n Five parts appear in a large share of Turkic names. Here is what each one means, where it comes from and how it is spelled in different languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tn_meta_description":"The meanings and origins of common Turkic name elements: ay (moon), g\u00fcl (rose), nur (light), bek (lord) and jan or can (soul), with sourced spellings.","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.turkicnames.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}g\u00fcl: rose, flower<\/h2>\n
nur: light<\/h2>\n
bek: lord, master<\/h2>\n
jan \/ can: soul, life<\/h2>\n
A note on reading compounds<\/h2>\n
Sources<\/h2>\n
\n