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

368 names · page 1 of 16

Dadak
“elder brother; baby; a taste sample of food; hard candy”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dadaş
“brother; brave young man”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dağ
“mountain”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Dağa
“plateau, high ground”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Dağaşan
“one who crosses mountains”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Dağdelen
“mountain-piercing”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Dağhan
“mountain khan”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dağtekin
“mountain prince”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Dâhi
“genius”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Da'im
“one who continues”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Boy1 syllableDocumented
Daime
“lasting, permanent”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Dal
“branch”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex1 syllableEditorial
Dalan
“shape, form; slender, graceful”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Dalayer
“man of the sea”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dalbaş
“protector”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Dalboğa
“branch bull”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Dalda
“secluded spot, shelter”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Daldal
“brave, hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Daldiken
“branch thorn”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Dalgıç
“diver”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dalkılıç
“with sword drawn; volunteer, devoted fighter”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Dalkoç
“branch ram”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Dalokay
“much admired”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Daltekin
“branch 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.