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 3 of 20

Egesel
“Aegean flood”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eğilmez
“unbowing”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eğrek
“name of Serek's brother in the Dede Korkut tales; a resting place”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ehil
“skilled; capable”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ehlimen
“believer, faithful person”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Əjdər
“dragon”
From Persian · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ejderhan
“dragon khan”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Əkbər
“greater”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Ekemen
“learned and refined; haughty”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Eken
“farmer; one who sows”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ekenel
“sowing hand”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Ekener
“sowing man”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Ekim
“October; sowing”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ekin
“crop, harvest”
From Turkic · Turkish, Uyghur
Unisex2 syllablesDocumented
Ekiner
“farmer, sower”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial

Ekmel
“most complete, most perfect”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Əkrəm
“most generous, most honourable”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Ela
“highest, superior, sublime”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Elaldı
“the hand has taken”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Elbirlik
“solidarity; joined hands”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Elçi
“envoy; ambassador”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Elçibey
“envoy lord”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Elçim
“variant of Elçin: envoy, ambassador”
Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Eldemir
“iron hand”
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.