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

376 names · page 12 of 16

Günak
“good, auspicious, happy day”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Günal
“red sun”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Günalan
“sunny field”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Günalp
“sun hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Günaltan
“golden sun”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Günaltay
“sun of the Altai”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Günan
“moment of the sun”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Günay
“day, sun + moon”
From Turkic · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Günaydın
“bright day; good morning”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Günbatu
“sunset, west”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Günbay
“sun lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Günbek
“sun chief”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Günbey
“sun lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Günçağ
“sun era”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Günçe
“sunny place”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Gündal
“sun branch”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Gündaş
“born on the same day”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Gündemir
“sun iron”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Günden
“gentle, yielding person who accepts everything”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Gündeniz
“sun and sea”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Günder
“flagpole; iron-tipped staff of wandering dervishes”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Gündeş
“born on the same day”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Gündoğan
“rising sun”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Gündoğar
“sunrise; east”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 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.