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
393 names · page 16 of 17
- “descent from someone's line”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “flame”TurkishGirl2 syllablesDocumented
- “relating to peace”From Arabic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “power, authority; sultan”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijani, Tatar, BashkirBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “pheasant; slender and graceful”From Turkic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “pheasant moon”TurkishGirl3 syllablesEditorial
- “pheasant-like lady”TurkishGirl4 syllablesEditorial
- “hyacinth”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “hyacinth-like”From Persian · TurkishGirl3 syllablesEditorial
- “the ancient Sumerians”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “Sumerian lineage”TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “little brunette”From Arabic · TurkishGirl3 syllablesEditorial
- “fruit blossom; curled leaf”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “high, lofty”From Arabic · Turkish, AzerbaijaniGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “top, highest part of something”From Arabic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “making; work; deed; command form of 'to offer'; gentle person”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex1 syllableEditorial
- “drake; tall and graceful”From Turkic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “one who offers respectfully”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “offering moon”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “spike of grain; the sign Virgo”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “fine silk brocade”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “power of God”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “of the dawn”From Arabic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “short form of Aleksandr (Shura)”From Russian · TurkishGirl2 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.

