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

247 names · page 7 of 11

Hicabi
“relating to shame and modesty; relating to a veil or curtain”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Hicap
“separation; grief, anguish”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Hicran
“separation, longing”
From Arabic · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Hicret
“migration”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Hiçsönmez
“never extinguished”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Hiçyılmaz
“never daunted”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Hidayət
“the right path; to guide to the right path”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Hidayettin
“guidance of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Hıdır
“legendary figure believed in folk tradition to be immortal”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Hıfzı
“relating to protection; relating to memorising”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Hıfzırrahman
“protection of the Merciful”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex4 syllablesEditorial
Hıfziye
“relating to protection; relating to memorising”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Hıfzullah
“protection of God”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Hikmet
“wisdom, knowledge”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Hikmettin
“wisdom of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial

Hikmetullah
“wisdom of God”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Hilal
“new crescent moon”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Hilkat
“creation; fine character”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Hilmi
“gentle, mild”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Hilmiye
“gentle, mild”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Himmet
“great will, zeal”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Hıncal
“taker of vengeance”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Hira
“cave; bright (Arabic)”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Hıraman
“walking gracefully, swaying”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl3 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.