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

244 names · page 10 of 11

Müsevver
“walled, protected”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Müşfika
“compassionate”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Müşküle
“difficulty, hardship”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Muslihe
“peacemaker; reformer”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Muslime
“Muslim (one who submits)”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl3 syllablesDocumented
Müslüme
“one who submits to God”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Müstakime
“upright, straight”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl4 syllablesEditorial
Müşteba
“chosen, select”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Müstecap
“one whose wish has been granted”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Müstenir
“luminous”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Müstenire
“radiant”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl4 syllablesEditorial
Müstesna
“exceptional, set apart”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Muştu
“good news”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Muştubey
“lord of glad tidings”
From Persian and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Mutahhar
“purified”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Mutarra
“fresh; fragrant”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Muteber
“esteemed, worthy of respect, reputable”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl3 syllablesDocumented
Mutena
“carefully chosen; distinguished”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Mutia
“obedient”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Mutlu
“happy”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Mutluay
“happy moon”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Muvahhide
“one who believes in the oneness of God”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Muvakkar
“dignified; honored”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Müveddet
“affection, friendship”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 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.