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

479 names · page 15 of 20

Şimşek
“lightning”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Şimşeker
“lightning-man; very lively and quick person”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Simüzer
“silver and gold”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Sina
“Sinai (peninsula and mountain)”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sinan
“spearhead”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Şinasi
“knowing, discerning”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Sipahi
“mounted soldier”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Siper
“shelter; trench”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Siraç
“lamp”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Siracettin
“lamp of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Sıral
“secret take”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sıralp
“secret-keeping hero”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Sırat
“path, road”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sirer
“sated, full”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Siret
“character, conduct”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Sirmen
“content, self-sufficient person”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sırrı
“of the secret, mysterious”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sıtkı
“sincere, truthful”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Sıylıhan
“honored khan”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Siyret
“inner nature, character, way of life”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Söğüt
“willow”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Sökmener
“brave man”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Sökmensü
“brave army”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Sökmensüer
“brave soldier-man”
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.