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.
- Published names
- 7961
- Scripts in our data
- Latin
- ISO 639-1
- tr
Browse Turkish names
120 names · page 5 of 5
- “true sun”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “free”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesDocumented
- “self-confident”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “descended from a sovereign”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “true belief”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “essence work”TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “true blessing”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “longing, yearning”From Turkic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesDocumented
- “longing; moist place by a stream”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “succinct”TurkishGirl2 syllablesLikely
- “person of sound character”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “true Nile”TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “pure light”From Turkic and Arabic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “true honeycomb”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “true spring”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “firm as steel at the core”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “true fame”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “relating to the essence”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “true love”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “true soldier; pure water”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “spiritually healthy man”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “true Danube”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “self-sacrifice, devotion”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “own homeland”TurkishUnisex2 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):
- Turkic4158
- Arabic2170
- Persian1209
- Greek42
- Mongolic39
- Hebrew28
- French14
Counted from 7961 published entries. Each name page explains its own etymology with sources.
Turkish names by meaning
Explore related languages
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.

