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

216 names · page 8 of 9

Urundu
“selected, distinguished”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Us
“mind, reason; root, origin”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy1 syllableEditorial
Uşak
“small; child; young man; servant”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Usalan
“intelligent, wise”
Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Usalp
“wise hero”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Usbay
“wise, respected person”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Usberk
“person with a lightning-bright mind”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Usbey
“wise man”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
User
“wise person”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Ushan
“wise ruler”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Uskan
“of wise lineage”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Uslu
“well-behaved, calm; wise”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Usluer
“well-behaved man”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Usta
“master craftsman, skilled worker”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Üstek
“high, exalted”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Üstol
“be superior, rise high”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Üstün
“superior”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Üstüngü
“supreme, uppermost”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Usuk
“understanding, quick perception”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Utkan
“victorious; of honorable lineage”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Utku
“victory, triumph”
From Old Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Utman
“honorable, well-mannered person”
Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Uyar
“fitting, suitable; gentle”
Turkish
Unisex1 syllableEditorial
Uyaralp
“fitting hero”
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.