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 5 of 13

Denk
“equal, matching”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Denkel
“balanced hand”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Denker
“balanced, harmonious person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Denktaş
“peer, equal”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Denli
“well-mannered, respectful”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Denlisoy
“of balanced lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Deren
“one who gathers; a rake”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Derenel
“gathering hand”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Derinkök
“deep root”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Derinöz
“deep essence, noble at heart”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Derlen
“gather yourself, be orderly”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Derman
“remedy, cure”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Derviş
“dervish, an itinerant Sufi mystic practicing voluntary poverty in devotion to God”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Dervişani
“belonging to dervishes”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Dervişhan
“dervish khan”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial

Deryadil
“generous, sea-hearted”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Deryanur
“sea of light”
From Persian and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Deste
“bunch, bundle”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Destegül
“bouquet of roses”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Devin
“movement; effort”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Deviner
“man of effort”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Devlet
“state”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Devlettin
“good fortune of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Devran
“the age; fortune”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 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.