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

872 names · page 23 of 37

Amanullah
“security of God”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Amir
“flourishing, one who brings prosperity; commander, one who orders”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Anadolu
“Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey”
From Greek · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Anahanım
“lady mother”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Anakadın
“motherly woman”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Anakız
“motherly girl”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Anber
“ambergris, amber fragrance”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ancı
“hunter”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ançıbay
“hunter lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Andaç
“keepsake, memento”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Andak
“immediately; leftover from a flood”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Andelip
“nightingale”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Andıç
“one who swears an oath”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Angı
“fame; keepsake, gift”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Angıl
“famous, renowned”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Angın
“well known, renowned”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Angış
“memory, keepsake”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Angıt
“a reddish duck-like bird”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Anı
“memory”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Anık
“ready; memory, remembrance; frail”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Anıl
“may you be remembered”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Anıt
“monument”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Anlı
“famous, renowned”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Annak
“front side; lookout summit; memory; open field”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 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.