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 17 of 26

Bilender
“rare and knowing”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilge
“wise”
From Old Turkic · Turkish, Uyghur
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Bilgealp
“wise hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Bilgebay
“wise lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgecan
“wise soul”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgeer
“wise man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Bilgehan
“wise khan”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgekağan
“wise khagan”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Bilgekan
“of wise descent”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgekurt
“wise wolf”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgekut
“wise blessing”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgen
“knowledgeable, sage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Bilgenur
“light of wisdom”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgetay
“wise colt”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgetürk
“wise Turk”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Bilgi
“knowledge”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Bilgiç
“knowledgeable person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Bilgihan
“knowledgeable ruler”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgin
“intellectual, scholar”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Bilginer
“learned man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Bilginur
“light of knowledge”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgiser
“knowledgeable chief”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgivar
“one with knowledge”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Bilgün
“knowing day”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 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.