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

153 names · page 5 of 7

Reşididdin
“mature one of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Reşik
“tall and handsome”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Reşit
“mature; rightly guided”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Resmî
“official; ceremonial”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Resmigül
“rose-shaped, beautiful as a rose”
From Arabic and Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Resmiye
“official; ceremonial”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Rəsul
“messenger”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani, Turkmen
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Resulhan
“ruler's envoy”
From Arabic and Persian · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Reviş
“manner, way”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Reyhan
“name of a kind of flower”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Reyya
“fragrance”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex1 syllableEditorial
Reyyan
“one whose thirst is quenched”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl1 syllableDocumented
Rezzak
“the Provider”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Rezzan
“dignified, composed”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Rical
“men; dignitaries”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Rıdvan
“contentment, divine approval”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Rifat
“high rank, elevation”
From Arabic · Turkish, Tatar, Bashkir
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Rıfkı
“gentle, kind”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Rıfkıye
“gentle, kind”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Rikap
“presence of an eminent person; stirrup”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Rikkat
“tenderness, delicacy”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Rindan
“carefree, humble ones; wandering dervishes”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Risalettin
“messenger of the faith, prophet”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy4 syllablesEditorial
Riza
“agreement, satisfaction”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh
Boy2 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

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.