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

706 names · page 18 of 30

Servi
“cypress”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Şetaret
“joy, cheerfulness”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Settar
“one who covers faults”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Seval
“love and take”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Sevan
“love, a moment”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Sevay
“beloved moon”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Sevcan
“beloved soul”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Sevda
“passionate love, infatuation”
From Arabic · Turkish, Azerbaijani
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Sevdakâr
“passionate lover”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevenay
“loving moon”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevencan
“loving soul”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevener
“loving man”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Sevengül
“loving rose”
Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Sevengün
“loving day”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Severcan
“soul who loves”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial

Sevgi
“love”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Sevgican
“love soul”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevgihan
“love khan”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevgili
“beloved”
From Turkic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevginaz
“love grace”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevginur
“light of love”
From Turkic and Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevgisun
“show love and friendship”
Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Sevgül
“love rose”
Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Sevgün
“love day”
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.