Language guide

Kazakh Names: Meanings, Origins & Traditions

Kazakh names are listed here in Kazakh Cyrillic, the alphabet used in Kazakhstan, together with any Latin spelling that our sources record. Many Kazakh names are compounds of native words, such as ай 'moon' or жан 'soul', and others come from Arabic and Persian. Kazakhstan has decided to move from Cyrillic to a Latin alphabet, a transition now scheduled to finish by 2031, so Latin spellings of the same name can still vary.

Қазақ тілі

Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family

Published names: 1555
Scripts in our data: Cyrillic, Latin
ISO 639-1: kk

Browse Kazakh names

56 names · page 1 of 3

Zagira
“bright, evident”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zaituna
“olive tree”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zakira
“one who remembers”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zakiya
“pure, intelligent”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zamira
“conscience, heart”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zarina
“golden”
From Persian · Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar, Bashkir
Girl3 syllablesDocumented
Zaripa
“graceful, witty”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zarya
“dawn”
From Russian · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zauza
“May”
From Classical Persian · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesLikely
Zeinep
“fragrant flowering tree”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zerde
“intellect, memory”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zere
“gold”
From Persian · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zergul
“golden flower”
From Persian · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zeynep
“fragrant flowering tree”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Bashkir
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zhadyra
“cheerful, beaming”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Zhaina
“blossom, flourish”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zhalila
“majestic, exalted”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zhamal
“beauty”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zhamby
“silver ingot (used as money or a valuable gift)”
From Chinese · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesLikely
Zhamila
“beautiful”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zhanar
“eyes, gaze”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zhanargul
“Adonis”
Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesLikely
Zhanat
“soul + father”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Zhanbike
“soul + noblewoman”
Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesLikely

How Kazakh names are written

Kazakh Cyrillic adds letters such as ә, ғ, қ, ң, ө, ұ, ү, һ and і to the Russian alphabet. A 2017 decree started a move to Latin script, later pushed back to 2031. Kazakhs in China, Iran and Afghanistan use an Arabic-based script. Latin forms on this site are shown only where a source records them.

Where Kazakh names come from

A name used in Kazakh is not automatically Kazakh in origin. Here is how the documented origins of the Kazakh names published so far break down (a name with elements from two languages counts under both):

Turkic
722
Arabic
557
Persian
448
Kipchak
65
Hebrew
26
Greek
17
Mongolic
15

Counted from 1555 published entries. Each name page explains its own etymology with sources.

Kazakh names by meaning

Kazakh belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, together with Kyrgyz, Tatar and Bashkir. Related languages share many words, but a name is listed under a language only when it is documented there.

Other languages: Turkish · Uyghur · Uzbek · Azerbaijani · Turkmen · Tajik

References for this page

Wikipedia contributors. Kazakh alphabets. Wikimedia Foundation, revision 1381145820. Accessed 2026-10-28. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wikipedia contributors. Turkic languages. Wikimedia Foundation, revision 1377797900. Accessed 2026-10-28. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.