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

99 names · page 2 of 5

Zekâi
“intelligent”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Zekâvet
“intelligence”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zekeriya
“YH has remembered”
From Ottoman Turkish and Arabic and Classical Syriac and Biblical Hebrew · Turkish, Uyghur
Boy3 syllablesDocumented
Zeki
“intelligent, pure; beautiful”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur, Azerbaijani
Boy2 syllablesDocumented
Zekire
“one with a strong memory”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zekiye
“intelligent, pure; beautiful”
From Arabic · Turkish, Uyghur
Girl2 syllablesDocumented
Zeliha
“fair, radiant”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zemzem
“the sacred well of Mecca and its water”
From Arabic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zengin
“wealthy”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Zennişan
“woman of distinction”
From Persian and Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zerafet
“elegance, grace”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zerefşan
“scattering gold”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zeren
“perceptive, clever”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zeria
“means; pretext; opportunity”
From Arabic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zerin
“golden”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial

Zernişan
“gold-marked; gold inlay”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl3 syllablesEditorial
Zerrin
“golden”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Zerrinkâr
“adorned with gold”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zerrintaç
“golden crown”
From Persian and Arabic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zerrişte
“gold thread”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Zeycan
“heartfelt, warm”
From Persian · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Zeyneddin
“adornment of the faith”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Zeynel
“ornament, adornment”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Zeynelabidin
“ornament of the worshippers”
From Arabic · Turkish
Boy5 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.