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

61 names · page 1 of 3

Çağdaş
“contemporary, modern”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Çağın
“lightning”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Çağla
“green almond”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Çağlayan
“waterfall”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Çalapkulu
“servant of God”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Çalışkan
“hardworking”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canal
“win hearts, be loved”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canan
“beloved, darling”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Canane
“beloved, sweetheart”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canay
“dear moon”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canbay
“dear lord”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canda
“one who is innermost, of the heart”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Candan
“sincere, heartfelt”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Candaner
“sincere friend”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Candeğer
“precious, dearly loved”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Canel
“hand of friendship”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canfeda
“self-sacrificing”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canfes
“fine glossy silk fabric”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canfeza
“gladdening the soul”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canfidan
“soul sapling”
From Persian and Greek · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canfide
“soul sapling”
From Persian and Greek · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Cangün
“soul day”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canhanım
“beloved lady”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canik
“agile, nimble”
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.