370 Names of Turkic Origin

What counts as a Turkic name here

A published name belongs to this page when any part of its origin label matches one of these words: turk, kipchak, chagatai, oghuz, karluk, bashkir, kyrgyz, kazakh, uzbek, azerbaijani, tatar and uyghur. That includes labels such as Proto-Turkic, Old Turkic, Kipchak and Chagatai, because they name Turkic languages or stages.

254 of the 370 names have only Turkic parts. The other 116 combine Turkic with Arabic (64), Persian (56) and Greek (1), so they also appear on those origin pages.

Background: Turkic names in Turkic languages

The Turkic languages form a family that stretches from Turkey and Azerbaijan across Central Asia to Xinjiang and Siberia, and the oldest written Turkic texts are the Old Turkic inscriptions of the eighth century. Names built from native words, such as animals, natural features and titles, are the part of Turkic naming that carries the language itself.

On this site a name counts as Turkic when an origin row names Turkic, Proto-Turkic, Old Turkic or a Turkic language or stage such as Kipchak, Chagatai or Ottoman Turkish. Many names are compounds that join a Turkic word to an Arabic or Persian one, and such names are counted under every origin that appears in their record.

Which languages use Turkic names

Turkic names are recorded most often for Turkish (200 names), Kazakh (140 names) and Uyghur (44 names). In all, 7 languages have at least one Turkic name in our data. A name used in several languages is counted once for each, so these numbers add up to more than 370.

Use the language buttons above the list to see only one language; they appear when the language has at least 12 Turkic names.

What Turkic names mean

By documented meaning theme, Turkic names fall most often under leadership and nobility (19), moon (18), nature and seasons (9) and life and soul (7). Of the 370 names, 234 (63 percent) have a Documented meaning, 136 are Likely and 0 are Editorial.

Building blocks that recur in these names include ay (moon; month), bek (lord, chief, master (title)), han (khan, ruler) and can (soul; life); each one links to its own page with the other names that use it.

Girl, boy and unisex Turkic names

The list holds 99 girl names, 235 boy names and 36 unisex names. Gender is recorded per language, so a name that is unisex in one language can be used for one gender only in another; the table on each name page shows this.

Choosing a Turkic name

If you want a name that is clearly native, combine this list with a theme such as moon, light or strength and open the building blocks on each name page. Native elements are shared between languages, so a Turkic name often exists in several spellings; check the spelling table before you decide which form to use on documents.

Questions and answers