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

6,152 names · page 12 of 257

Akdoğu
“pure east”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akdöl
“of pure lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Akdora
“cloud-capped mountain peak”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akdoru
“white bay horse”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Akdoruk
“white summit”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akduman
“white mist”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akel
“lucky-handed”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aker
“honest, trustworthy man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akergin
“pure, mature one”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akerman
“honest, noble, pure person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akersan
“pure man of renown”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akersoy
“pure man of noble lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akgil
“of pure lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akgiray
“pure Giray”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akgöl
“white lake”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Akgüç
“pure strength”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akgün
“bright day”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akgündüz
“bright daytime”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Akgüneş
“bright sun”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Akgüngör
“may you see bright days”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Akhan
“white khan”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akhun
“White Hun”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akı
“generous person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Akıalp
“generous hero”
From Turkic · 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.