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.
- Published names
- 7961
- Scripts in our data
- Latin
- ISO 639-1
- tr
Browse Turkish names
1,936 names · page 19 of 81
- “an ancient Turkic personal name”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “wolf blood”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex3 syllablesEditorial
- “clan; stature”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex1 syllableEditorial
- “of fine stature”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “gray horse”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “resembling boza, a fermented millet drink”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “female deer”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “grey stone”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “rain-bringing southerly wind”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “hidden or remote corner; sandy, bushy riverbank; mountain peak”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “dam or weir on a stream; also wise, learned; dragon (as in Büke)”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “this rose”From Turkic and Persian · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “thicket by a stream or plain; bramble; river bend; dense woodland”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex1 syllableEditorial
- “wise, learned; dragon”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “curl, coil, fold”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “conscience”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “discovery, invention”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “cloud prince”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex4 syllablesEditorial
- “sharp, cutting”From Persian · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “bitter vetch, ervil, any plant of the species Vicia ervilia, which produces bitter, lentil-like seeds”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesDocumented
- “flea; partridge; gift, tip; a lively, restless person”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “veil, head covering”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “volcano”From Arabic · TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “tart, bitter-tasting; offended; limping; whirlwind”From Turkic · TurkishUnisex2 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):
- Turkic4158
- Arabic2170
- Persian1209
- Greek42
- Mongolic39
- Hebrew28
- French14
Counted from 7961 published entries. Each name page explains its own etymology with sources.
Turkish names by meaning
Explore related languages
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.

