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

45 names · page 1 of 2

Aibala
“moon child”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aizat
“moon child”
From Turkic and Persian · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Akku
“swan”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aktilek
“pure wish, good wish”
From Turkic · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Akzhan
“white + soul”
Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Alka
“necklace”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aman
“safe, peaceful, tranquil”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Ansagan
“longed-for”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ardak
“honoured, cherished”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Assyl
“precious, noble”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Assylzhan
“precious soul”
From Classical Persian · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Bakyt
“fortune, luck; happiness”
From Persian · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Balaussa
“fresh young grass, tender”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Bereke
“blessing, fortune”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesDocumented
Dana
“wise”
From Classical Persian and Persian · Turkish, Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented

Dara
“unique, singular”
From Turkic · Turkish, Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Kanagat
“contentment, satisfaction”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesDocumented
Karabala
“black; large, big, great + child”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex4 syllablesLikely
Karshyga
“sparrowhawk”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Kenzhe
“youngest child”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Kuanysh
“joy”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Lashyn
“falcon”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Merei
“joy, honour”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Mereke
“holiday, celebration”
From Persian and Arabic · Kazakh
Unisex3 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.