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.
- Published names
- 7961
- Scripts in our data
- Latin
- ISO 639-1
- tr
Browse Turkish names
69 names · page 3 of 3
- “nurturing, nourishing”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “the Pleiades”From Persian · Turkish, AzerbaijaniGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “frost, dew; mist; fine snow”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “approved, chosen; matte gold”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “honeycomb”From Turkic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “oath, promise”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “lamp, torch”Turkish, UyghurGirl2 syllablesDocumented
- “elders, saints”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “adornment”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “glittering”From Turkic · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “brilliant-cut diamond”From Italian · TurkishGirl3 syllablesEditorial
- “steel”From Persian · Turkish, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tatar, BashkirBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “north-east wind”From Greek · TurkishBoy2 syllablesEditorial
- “princess”From French · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “free, independent”From West Circassian · TurkishBoy2 syllablesDocumented
- “lock of hair at the temple; fine roots; tassel”TurkishUnisex2 syllablesEditorial
- “undergrowth; thicket; a small-leaved yellow-flowered plant”TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “full of radiance”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “glorious”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “full of joy”From Persian · TurkishGirl2 syllablesEditorial
- “mature, accomplished”TurkishUnisex2 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):
- Turkic4158
- Arabic2170
- Persian1209
- Greek42
- Mongolic39
- Hebrew28
- French14
Counted from 7961 published entries. Each name page explains its own etymology with sources.
Turkish names by meaning
Explore related languages
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.

