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

298 names · page 4 of 13

Çangal
“crooked, branching tree; very thin; stream bed”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cangiray
“dear Giray”
From Persian and Mongolic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cangül
“rose of the soul”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Cangün
“soul day”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cangür
“lively, cheerful”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Canhanım
“beloved lady”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Canik
“agile, nimble”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canip
“side, direction”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canıpek
“silken soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Cankan
“soul blood”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cankat
“give life-energy, spread joy”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cankaya
“bell rock”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cankılıç
“soul sword”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cankız
“dear girl”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Cankoç
“soul ram”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Cankorur
“protector of life”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Cankurt
“soul wolf”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cankut
“fortunate, happy”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cannur
“luminous one”
From Persian and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canol
“be dear”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Canöz
“one's inner essence”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canözen
“diligent soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Canözlem
“longing of the soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Canperver
“soul-nourishing”
From Persian · 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.