Language guide

Turkish Names: Meanings, Origins & Traditions

Turkish names are recorded here in the modern Turkish Latin alphabet, which replaced the Arabic-based Ottoman script in 1928. Because Ottoman Turkish absorbed a large Arabic and Persian vocabulary, many familiar Turkish names, such as Elif or Emir, go back to Arabic or Persian words, while others, such as Arslan or Aynur, contain native Turkic elements. Each entry states which of these applies, based on the cited sources.

Türkçe

Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family

Published names: 7961
Scripts in our data: Latin
ISO 639-1: tr

Browse Turkish names

510 names · page 17 of 22

Aydagül
“rose of the moon”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Aydan
“from the moon”
From Turkic · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Aydanur
“moonlight”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aydar
“forelock”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aydeniz
“moon and sea”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aydenk
“as beautiful as the moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Aydilek
“moon + A desire”
From Proto-Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesLikely
Aydın
“moon of the faith”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Aydınay
“bright moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aydinç
“vigorous moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aydolu
“full moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aydolun
“full moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ayduru
“clear moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ayfer
“moon radiance”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Ayferi
“moonlight”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial

Aygen
“friend; beloved”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aygerim
“beautiful as the moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Aygök
“moon sky”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aygöl
“moon lake”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Aygönenç
“bright and content as the moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aygönül
“fair-hearted”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aygul
“moon + flower”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Bashkir
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Aygüler
“smiling moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aygülhan
“moon, rose and khan”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial

How Turkish names are written

Modern Turkish uses a 29-letter Latin alphabet introduced in 1928. Letters such as ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş and ü matter for spelling: Gülnur and Gulnur are different spellings, and the dotless ı is a separate letter from i. Search on this site ignores these marks, but entries always show the documented spelling.

Where Turkish names come from

A name used in Turkish is not automatically Turkish in origin. Here is how the documented origins of the Turkish names published so far break down (a name with elements from two languages counts under both):

Turkic
4158
Arabic
2170
Persian
1209
Greek
42
Mongolic
39
Hebrew
28
French
14

Counted from 7961 published entries. Each name page explains its own etymology with sources.

Turkish names by meaning

Turkish belongs to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, together with Azerbaijani and Turkmen. Related languages share many words, but a name is listed under a language only when it is documented there.

Other languages: Uyghur · Kazakh · Kyrgyz · Uzbek · Tatar · Bashkir · Tajik

References for this page

Wikipedia contributors. Turkic languages. Wikimedia Foundation, revision 1377797900. Accessed 2026-10-28. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wikipedia contributors. Turkish alphabet. Wikimedia Foundation, revision 1381762599. Accessed 2026-10-28. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.