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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

420 names · page 8 of 18

  • Mert

    “valiant, manly; a man of his word”
    From Persian · Turkish
    Boy1 syllableDocumented

  • Merter

    “brave man”
    From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Mertkal

    “remain brave; always keep your word”
    Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Mertkan

    “of valiant lineage”
    Turkish
    Unisex2 syllablesEditorial

  • Mertkol

    “brave arm”
    Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Mertol

    “be a person of your word”
    Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Merttürk

    “Turk true to his word”
    Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Merve

    “flint stone”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Girl2 syllablesEditorial

  • Meryem

    “Mary (mother of Jesus)”
    From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Bashkir
    Girl2 syllablesDocumented

  • Merzuk

    “fortunate; provided for”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Merzuka

    “fortunate; provided for”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

  • Mesadet

    “happiness”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Girl3 syllablesEditorial

  • Meşâhir

    “famous people”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Boy3 syllablesEditorial

  • Meşale

    “torch; guiding person”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

  • Mescur

    “overflowing water, the sea; blazing fire”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Meserret

    “joy, delight”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Girl3 syllablesEditorial

  • Meşhur

    “famous”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesLikely

  • Mesih

    “anointed”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Meşru

    “lawful, legitimate”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Mesrur

    “glad, delighted”
    From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
    Boy2 syllablesDocumented

  • Mesrure

    “happy, joyful”
    From Arabic · Turkish
    Girl3 syllablesEditorial

  • Mestan

    “intoxicated, carefree”
    From Persian · Turkish
    Boy2 syllablesEditorial

  • Mestinaz

    “very coquettish”
    From Persian · Turkish
    Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

  • Mesude

    “happy, fortunate”
    From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
    Girl3 syllablesDocumented

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

  1. Wikipedia contributors. Turkic languages. Wikimedia Foundation, revision 1377797900. Accessed 2026-10-28. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
  2. Wikipedia contributors. Turkish alphabet. Wikimedia Foundation, revision 1381762599. Accessed 2026-10-28. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.