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

335 names · page 1 of 14

Oba
“nomadic encampment”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Obuz
“spring; small stream; narrow place where two streams meet”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ocak
“stove, oven, fireplace”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Öçal
“take revenge”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ocan
“his soul”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Oder
“fire man”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Odhan
“fire khan”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Odkanlı
“lively, spirited person”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Odman
“lively, spirited person”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Ödül
“reward, prize”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Odyak
“light the fire”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Odyakar
“one who kindles fire”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Odyakmaz
“one fire does not burn”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oflaz
“fine, handsome; lavender”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Oflazer
“fine, flawless person”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial

Öger
“wise, knowledgeable person”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ögetürk
“wise, knowledgeable Turk”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğul
“son”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Oğulbalı
“perfect, very beautiful; fine white honey”
Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Oğulbaş
“firstborn son”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğulbay
“son lord”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğulbey
“son lord”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğulcan
“dear son”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğultan
“son of dawn”
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.