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

299 names · page 2 of 13

Damar
“vein; ore vein; temperament; type”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dana
“wise”
From Classical Persian and Persian · Turkish, Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Danişment
“learned person”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Danyal
“God is my judge”
From Hebrew · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dara
“unique, singular”
From Turkic · Turkish, Kazakh
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Daryal
“Gate of the Alans”
From West Circassian and Classical Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Daver
“judge, arbiter”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Davran
“be ready; set to work; preparation”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dayanç
“endurance, patience”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Dayı
“maternal uncle; respected protector”
Turkish
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Daylak
“beardless young man; tall slim person”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dede
“grandfather; ancestor”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Değer
“value, worth”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Değmeer
“distinguished, select person”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Deha
“genius”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Dehri
“one who believes the world is eternal; very learned person”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Delâl
“charm, coy grace”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Delice
“wild, spirited; a falcon-type bird; a cereal-family plant”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Delikan
“spirited, restless young person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Delikanlı
“young man past childhood, strong youth”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Demir
“iron”
From Proto-Turkic · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Demirağ
“iron net”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Demiralp
“iron hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Demiray
“iron moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 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.