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

21 names

Zaik
“one who tastes”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex1 syllableEditorial
Zamire
“inner self, conscience”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zatinur
“luminous person”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zekâvet
“intelligence”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zemzem
“the sacred well of Mecca and its water”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zeren
“perceptive, clever”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zerrinkâr
“adorned with gold”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zerrintaç
“golden crown”
From Persian and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zerrişte
“gold thread”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zeycan
“heartfelt, warm”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zinet
“ornament, adornment”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zişan
“glorious; honorable”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zivər
“ornament, adornment”
From Persian · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ziyaeddin
“light of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ziynetî
“adorned, relating to adornment”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Zühtiye
“ascetic, devoted to worship”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zülfibar
“loose, flowing hair”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zülfiyar
“beloved's lock of hair”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zülfübar
“flowing, loose hair”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zülfüzar
“one with abundant hair”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zülkarneyn
“two-horned; a figure named in the Quran”
From Arabic · 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.