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
34 names · page 1 of 2
- “servant (of God)”From Arabic · Turkish, Kazakh, UzbekBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “servant of the Mighty”From Arabic · Turkish, UzbekBoy4 syllablesEditorial
- “servant of the Wise”From Arabic · Turkish, UzbekBoy4 syllablesEditorial
- “servant of God”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, BashkirBoy3 syllablesDocumented
- “majestic, huge, giant”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, KazakhBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “bright-faced; pleasant”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “just, fair”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, AzerbaijaniBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “more praiseworthy; most praiseworthy”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, TurkmenBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “flowing; spring, fountain”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “fair face”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “white rose; white flower”From Turkic and Persian · Turkish, Kazakh, TurkmenGirl2 syllablesDocumented
- “white + Cervus elaphus maral”From Classical Mongolian · Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, TurkmenGirl3 syllablesDocumented
- “well-known, good person”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “white dawn”From Turkic · Turkish, Kazakh, KyrgyzBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “white”From Latin · Turkish, Tatar, BashkirGirl3 syllablesDocumented
- “high, exalted”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, BashkirBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “scholar, learned person”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, KyrgyzBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “brave hero”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “flourishing, one who brings prosperity; commander, one who orders”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar, BashkirBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “honourable lord”From Turkic · Turkish, KazakhBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “the Arda river”From unknown · Turkish, KazakhBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “ideal, will, goal”From Persian · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, KyrgyzBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “lion”From Proto-Turkic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Tatar, BashkirBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “of noble lineage”From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, UzbekBoy2 syllablesDocumented
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.

