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: 1272
Scripts in our data: Latin
ISO 639-1: tr

Browse Turkish names

317 names · page 1 of 14

Abakay
“paternal uncle; senior wife”
From Mongolic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Abdülcevat
“servant of the Generous”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Abdülferit
“servant of the Unique”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Abgül
“pure, water-clear rose”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Abıru
“honor, dignity”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ablak
“bright-faced; pleasant”
From Turkic · Turkish, Kazakh
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Abruy
“honor, dignity”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Aca
“mother; respected older woman”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Açalya
“azalea”
From Greek · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Acarbüke
“fair-faced lady”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Acarkan
“of fair lineage; lovable”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Açıkalın
“honest, upright person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Açıkel
“generous person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Aclan
“swift, hasty”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Acunalp
“world-famous hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Acunbegüm
“lady of the world”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Acunbüke
“beauty of the world”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Acuner
“world-renowned man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Acungüneş
“sun of the world”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Acunışık
“light of the world”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Ada
“island”
From Ottoman Turkish · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Adanır
“one who gains a name”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Adar
“maturity; time; companion”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Adıbelli
“of renowned lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 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
697
Arabic
394
Persian
179
Greek
20
Hebrew
14
Mongolic
8
West
8

Counted from 1272 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.