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

581 names · page 18 of 25

Gülsun
“chubby-cheeked, plump-faced”
Turkish, Uyghur
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Gülsunam
“I offer a rose”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gülsunan
“one who offers roses”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gülsunar
“she offers roses”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gültab
“radiant rose”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gültaç
“rose crown”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gültan
“rose + dawn”
From Classical Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesLikely
Gültane
“a single rose”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gültaş
“rose stone”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Gültaze
“fresh rose”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gültekin
“trustworthy person”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Gülten
“rose-skinned”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gülter
“fresh rose”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gültop
“ball of roses”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gülüm
“my flower; my flower-like daughter”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl2 syllablesDocumented

Gülümay
“my rose moon”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gülümşen
“my cheerful rose”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gülümser
“smiling”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gülüş
“a laugh, a smile”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gülver
“rose giver”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Gülveren
“one who gives roses”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Gülzar
“rose garden, flower bed”
From Persian · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Gülziba
“beautiful rose”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Güman
“belief; opinion; desire; cheerfulness”
Turkish
Boy2 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.