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 15 of 20

Erokay
“distinguished, admired man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Erol
“be a man, be brave”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Eronat
“upright man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eröz
“man of manly, heroic nature”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Erozan
“bard”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Erşahan
“hero strong as a falcon”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Ersal
“be known for your valour”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ersalmış
“man known for his valour”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Erşan
“renowned man”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Erşat
“joyful, happy man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ersav
“man of his word”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ersavaş
“warrior”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ersay
“respected man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ersayın
“respected man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erseç
“chosen man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Ersel
“torrent hero”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ersen
“cheerful man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erşet
“one on the right path”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ersev
“loving man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Erseven
“man who loves”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Ersever
“man who loves”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Ersevin
“joyful man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Ersevinç
“man's joy”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ersezen
“perceptive 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.