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

1,555 names · page 33 of 65

Konyr
“brown; gentle”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Konys
“homestead, settlement”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Kopbai
“many, a lot of + rich, wealthy”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Kopzhan
“many, a lot of + soul”
From Proto-Turkic and Classical Persian · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Korik
“beauty”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Korkemzhan
“beautiful soul”
From Turkic and Persian · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Kozha
“master, khoja”
From Persian · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Kozhabai
“hodja (Muslim schoolmaster); master; boss + rich, wealthy”
From Classical Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Kozhabek
“hodja (Muslim schoolmaster); master; boss + bey, beg, bek, master (component of many male given names)”
From Classical Persian and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Kozhakan
“hodja (Muslim schoolmaster); master; boss + khan (ruler over various Turkic and Mongol peoples in the Middle Ages)”
From Classical Persian and Kipchak · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Kozy
“lamb”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Kuan
“rejoice”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Kuandyk
“joy, gladness”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Kuanysh
“joy”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Kuat
“strength, power”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy1 syllableEditorial

Kuatbek
“strong lord”
From Arabic and Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Kudaibergen
“given by God”
From Persian and Turkic · Kazakh, Kyrgyz
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Kulgin
“purple, violet”
From Persian · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesLikely
Kulynshak
“little foal”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Kumar
“passion, longing”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Kumarbek
“passion, desire + chieftan, master”
From Arabic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesDocumented
Kumis
“silver”
From Turkic · Kazakh
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Kumisbai
“silver + rich, wealthy”
From Proto-Turkic · Kazakh
Boy3 syllablesLikely
Kumisbek
“silver lord”
From 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.