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

620 names · page 15 of 26

Betigül
“rose-faced”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Betik
“writing, written work”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Betim
“synonym of tasvir”
From Turkish · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Betül
“virgin; chaste, pure”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Betülay
“chaste moon”
From Arabic and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Beyaz
“white; pure”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl1 syllableEditorial
Beyazıt
“name borne by several Ottoman sultans”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beybolat
“lord strong as steel”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Beycan
“lordly soul”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beyda
“desert”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beydağ
“name of mountains in several parts of Anatolia”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beydaş
“just, righteous”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Beygu
“a bird of prey”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beyhan
“lord khan”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Beyhatun
“noble lady”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Beykal
“remain a lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beykan
“lord blood”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beykara
“black lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Beylan
“dignified, well-mannered”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Beylem
“unopened cotton boll; bouquet of flowers”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Beyrek
“courteous lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beysan
“lord fame”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Beysun
“may she be a lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Beytekin
“lord prince”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 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.