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

250 names · page 9 of 11

Cezlân
“happy”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cezmi
“resolute, decisive”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çıdal
“patience”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çıdamlı
“patient, enduring”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Çığıl
“shoulder; a Turkic tribe”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cihan
“world, universe”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Cihandar
“world-ruling sovereign”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cihandide
“world-wise, experienced”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Cihanefruz
“illuminating the world”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Cihaner
“man of the world”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cihangir
“world conqueror”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cihanî
“worldly; of the world”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cihanmert
“brave one of the world”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cihanşah
“shah of the world”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cihat
“striving, earnest effort”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Çiltay
“spotted foal”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çınak
“talon of a bird of prey; clear weather after rain”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çınar
“plane tree”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cindoruk
“summit, highest point”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Çinel
“honest, upright”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çıngı
“spark; fragment”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çinuçin
“superior, victorious”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Çıray
“face, countenance”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Civan
“young, youthful”
From Persian · 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.