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

7,961 names · page 76 of 332

Cansal
“relating to the soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cansay
“esteemed soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cansel
“soul torrent”
Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cansen
“you are dear, you are beloved”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canser
“foremost soul; one who risks their life”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canses
“soul voice”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Cansev
“loving dearly”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Canseven
“one who loves dearly”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Cansever
“one who loves dearly”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Cansın
“you are beloved”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cansoy
“soul lineage”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cansu
“water of life”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Cansun
“offer the soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Cansunar
“offers the soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex3 syllablesEditorial
Cansuner
“man who offers his soul”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial

Cantaş
“soul stone”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cantekin
“dear prince”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy3 syllablesEditorial
Canten
“body and soul”
From Persian · Turkish
Girl2 syllablesEditorial
Cantez
“quick-spirited, hasty, active”
From Persian · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Cantürk
“Turk at heart”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Canyurt
“soul homeland”
From Persian and Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çapan
“coat; wedding-feast cook; hand-clapping”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 syllablesEditorial
Çapın
“attack, charge”
From Turkic · Turkish
Boy2 syllablesEditorial
Çapkan
“attacker; one who runs fast”
From Turkic · Turkish
Unisex2 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.