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

479 names · page 14 of 20

Erksan
“renowned for strength and influence”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erksoy
“of powerful lineage”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erksun
“show your power”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erktin
“powerful spirit”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erkul
“male person”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erkunt
“strong, sturdy man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Erkurt
“man + A wolf”
From Proto-Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesLikely
Erkuş
“hero bird”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Erkut
“blessed man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erkutay
“man born under a blessed moon”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Erkutlu
“fortunate man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Erlik
“manliness; bravery”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erman
“brave hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ermiş
“one who has attained; matured”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ermiye
“storm clouds that bring hail”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

Ermutlu
“happy man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Erna
“beautiful and charming beloved”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Ernoyan
“brave commander”
From Turkic and Mongolic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ernur
“man of light”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Eroğan
“strong man”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eröge
“wise man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Eroğlu
“hero's son”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eroğul
“son; male child”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eroğuz
“Oghuz man”
From Turkic · 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.