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

138 names · page 3 of 6

Balabai
“child + rich, wealthy”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Balabek
“child + bey, beg, bek, master (component of many male given names)”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Balamurat
“child + cherished goal”
From Proto-Turkic and Arabic · Kazakh
Boy4 syllablesLikely
Balapan
“chick, nestling”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Balaussa
“fresh young grass, tender”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Balgozha
“omen + hodja”
From Persian · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesDocumented
Balta
“axe”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Baltabai
“ax, axe + rich, wealthy”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Baltabek
“ax + chieftain, master”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesDocumented
Baluan
“wrestler, strongman”
From Persian · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Bapa
“dad, daddy”
Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Barat
“born in the month of Barat; sinless, freed from sin”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Bari
“bringer of all into being, creator of all”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Barlyk
“all, overall”
Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Barmak
“finger”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely

Barys
“snow leopard”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Barysbek
“snow leopard lord”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bashan
“chief khan”
From Turkic · Turkish, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Bashir
“bringer of good news”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Baskan
“president, head of a body”
From Turkic · Turkish, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Bastau
“spring, source”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Battal
“brave, heroic”
From Arabic · Turkish, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Batur
“hero; brave”
From Proto-Turkic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Batyr
“hero, brave warrior”
From Turkic · Kazakh, Turkmen, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

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.