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

165 names · page 1 of 7

Ebrar
“the pious, the righteous”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Ebru
“eyebrow; paper marbling”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Ece
“queen”
From Proto-Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Ecegül
“queen rose”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Ecehan
“queen ruler”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ecenur
“queen of light”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Ecevit
“nimble; hardworking”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ecmel
“most beautiful”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ecrin
“jewel case”
From French · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Eda
“grace, charming manner”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Edadil
“graceful heart”
From Arabic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Edagül
“graceful rose”
From Arabic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Edgüalp
“good warrior”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Edibe
“scholar, writer, woman of letters”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Girl3 syllablesDocumented
Ediz
“high, lofty”
From Old Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Efdal
“most virtuous”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Efekan
“of efe lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Əflatun
“pale violet”
From Ancient Greek · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Efser
“crown”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Efsun
“spell, charm”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Efza
“increasing; augmenting”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Ege
“the Aegean (Sea)”
From Greek · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Egemen
“sovereign, dominant”
From Greek · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesDocumented
Egenur
“Aegean light”
From Turkic and Arabic · 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.