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

152 names · page 3 of 7

Sarsenbai
“rich one born on Wednesday”
From Persian · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Sarsenbi
“Wednesday”
From Persian · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Sary
“yellow, fair”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sarybai
“yellow + rich, wealthy”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Sarybas
“Rorippa”
Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Sat
“moment; good luck”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Saten
“satin”
From Russian · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesLikely
Sattar
“one who covers faults”
From Arabic · Uyghur, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Sauir
“April”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Saule
“ray of light, beam”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Saulebai
“ray, light, beam + rich, wealthy”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Saulebek
“ray, light, beam + bey, beg, bek, master (component of many male given names)”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Sauyt
“vessel”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableLikely
Sauytbai
“armor + rich, wealthy”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Saya
“shade, shelter”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial

Seifolla
“sword of God”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Seiil
“stroll, saunter”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableLikely
Seiit
“master, descendant of the Prophet”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Seiitkazy
“master, lord, the noble one + judge”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesDocumented
Seiitzhan
“master, lord, the noble one + soul”
From Arabic and Persian · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Senim
“trust, faith”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Serik
“partner, associate”
From Persian and Arabic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Serikbai
“partner, companion + rich, wealthy”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Serikbek
“companion lord”
From Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 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.