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 2 of 14

Oğultekin
“son prince”
Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Oğultürk
“Turkish son”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Ogün
“pride; time; in front”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Oğuralp
“lucky, happy hero”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğurata
“lucky forefather”
Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Oğuz
“colostrum (first milk); name of the Oghuz tribe”
From Turkic · Turkish, Uyghur
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Oğuzalp
“Oghuz hero”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzata
“Oghuz father”
Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzbala
“Oghuz child”
Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzbay
“Oghuz lord”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzcan
“dear Oghuz”
From Turkic and Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzer
“Oghuz man”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzhan
“Oghuz khan”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzkan
“Oghuz blood”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuzman
“strong, kind-hearted friend”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial

Oğuztan
“Oghuz dawn”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Oğuztüzün
“upright Oghuz”
Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Okakın
“raid by arrows”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Okal
“take the arrow”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Okanalp
“understanding hero; hero of divine power”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Okanay
“understanding moon”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Okaner
“understanding man”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Okar
“crested heron with an arrow-shaped plume”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Okat
“arrow horse”
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.