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 17 of 257

Alakoç
“ram with a mottled coat”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alakurt
“wolf with a mottled coat”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Alakuş
“peacock”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Alâmet
“sign, trace”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alan
“plain, open field”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Alanalp
“hero of the plain”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alanay
“moon of the plain”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Alanbay
“lord of the plain”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alaner
“man of the plain”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alangoya
“golden deer; a legendary Mongol heroine”
From Mongolic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Alangu
“golden deer”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alatan
“mixed colors at dawn”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alataş
“mottled stone”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Alatay
“foal with a spotted coat”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Alay
“regiment; procession”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Alaybey
“lord of the regiment”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alaz
“flame, blaze”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Albayrak
“red flag”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Albeni
“charm, attractiveness”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Albora
“red storm”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alburak
“scarlet Buraq”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Alcan
“brave, bold person”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Alçık
“lookout, guard”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Alçın
“a small red bird”
From Turkic · 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.