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

68 names · page 1 of 3

Nabi
“prophet”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Uzbek, Tatar
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Nadira
“rare, precious”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Nafissa
“precious, exquisite”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Nagima
“blessing, comfort”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Naizabek
“spear lord”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Nakysh
“etching, engraving, carving”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Nardan
“pomegranate seeds; teardrop”
From Persian · Turkish, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Nargul
“pomegranate blossom”
From Persian · Turkish, Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Nariman
“brave-hearted”
From Persian · Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Nassima
“gentle breeze”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Nauryz
“spring new year”
From Classical Persian · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Nauryzbai
“rich one born at Nauryz”
From Classical Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Nauryzbek
“lord born at Nauryz”
From Classical Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Nazar
“gaze, look”
From Arabic · Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Nazarbai
“attention (mental focus) + rich, wealthy”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely

Nazarbek
“lord of favour”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Nazgul
“graceful flower”
From Classical Persian · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Nazir
“new, beautiful; observer, onlooker; eye; director”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Nazira
“like, counterpart”
From Arabic · Kazakh, Uzbek
Girl3 syllablesDocumented
Nazym
“verse, poetry”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Nessip
“destiny, lot”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Niet
“intention”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Nietbai
“intention + rich, wealthy”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Nijat
“deliverance, salvation”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented

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.