Turkish Names With Meanings: 20 Girl Names and 20 Boy Names

Ask a Turkish family why they chose a name and you will often hear a small story: a laurel tree in the garden, a September birth, a grandfather's wish for a brave boy. Many Turkish names are everyday words, so most of them have a meaning you can explain to a child in one sentence. Here are 20 Turkish girl names and 20 boy names with their meanings, a few tips for saying them, and the stories behind the names of the Roots & Talks characters.

Why so many Turkish names have a meaning

A lot of Turkish first names come straight from the dictionary. There are names from nature (sea, rain, tulip), from the calendar (April, September), and names for qualities parents hope for (hope, peace, courage). Next to old Turkish words you will find names with Arabic and Persian roots, which have been part of Turkish for centuries. Some names, such as Deniz, are given to both girls and boys.

For each name below we give the dictionary meaning, mostly from the Turkish Language Association (TDK). Some well-loved classics, like Zeynep, have older roots that sources explain in different ways, so we left them off this list.

20 Turkish girl names and their meanings

• Defne: laurel, the evergreen tree with fragrant leaves.
• Ela: hazel, a light chestnut color, often said of eyes.
• Eylül: September.
• Filiz: a sprout, the young shoot that grows from a seed or a bud.
• Elif: the name of the first letter of the Arabic alphabet.
• Deniz: sea. Also a boy's name.
• Ada: island.
• Su: water.
• Yağmur: rain.
• Damla: a drop.
• Duru: clear and pure, like still water.
• Lale: tulip.
• Ceren: gazelle.
• Nisan: April.
• Bahar: spring, the season.
• İpek: silk.
• Ayla: halo, the ring of light sometimes seen around the moon.
• Öykü: story.
• Ece: queen.
• Gökçe: sky blue; in older use also "beautiful".

20 Turkish boy names and their meanings

• Ahmet: "most praised", from Arabic.
• Gazi: someone who came back alive from war, and a title of honor. Atatürk carried this title too.
• Giray: the title of the khans of Crimea, a dynasty that ruled there until 1783.
• Can: soul, life; also a word for someone dear to you.
• Ege: the Turkish name of the Aegean, the sea off Türkiye's west coast.
• Arda: a successor, someone who comes after; also the name of a river in the Balkans.
• Kerem: generosity, kindness, nobility.
• Mert: brave, someone who keeps his word.
• Ali: high, exalted.
• Efe: a brave young man of the villages of western Anatolia; also "big brother".
• Alp: brave, a hero.
• Kağan: khagan, the ruler above the khans.
• Barış: peace.
• Umut: hope.
• Yiğit: brave and bold.
• Doruk: summit, the highest point.
• Toprak: earth, soil.
• Çınar: plane tree, a large tree that lives for a very long time.
• Poyraz: the cold wind from the northeast.
• Kuzey: north.

How to say Turkish names

Turkish is written the way it sounds, so once you know a handful of letters, every name on this list is easy to read out loud.

• c is the "j" in "jam": Can sounds like "Jahn", Ceren like "Jeh-ren".
• ç is "ch": Çınar sounds like "Chuh-nar".
• ş is "sh": Barış sounds like "Bah-rush".
• ğ is silent and stretches the vowel before it: Yağmur sounds like "Yaa-moor".
• The dotless ı is roughly the vowel in "the"; ö and ü sound like the German letters.
• A final e is always spoken: Defne is "Def-neh", Ege is "Eh-geh".

Spelling matters too: Eylül and Eylul are the same name, but the dots tell a Turkish reader how to say it.

The names behind the Roots & Talks characters

Seven names from these lists belong to the Roots & Talks characters, the friends from our Turkish lessons, games and stories.

• Ela is six years old and loves new Turkish words.
• Eylül is ten, grows up with two languages and collects her favorite words in her notebook.
• Defne writes her favorite song lyrics in her notebook.
• Filiz is a creative elephant who dances and paints with her trunk.
• Ahmet is a cheerful boy who always has a riddle in his pocket.
• Gazi is sixteen and loves football and cheering in Turkish.
• Giray is a boy growing up abroad who never stops trying again.

You can meet all of them on our characters page.

A gift idea for a child with one of these names

If a child in your family is called Ela, Defne or Giray, a gift with "their" character can be a fun surprise. Each character has a gift collection: Ela, Eylül, Defne, Filiz, Ahmet, Gazi and Giray.

For a birthday note, the Ela Character Greeting Cards come in a pack of 10 folded cards, with Ela laughing in pigtails on the front, above the Roots & Talks logo.

The Gazi Character Greeting Cards show Gazi holding a football. Good to know: the character cards show the character and our logo, not the name itself, and they are not personalized.

A name is a small story

Whether you are choosing a name or simply curious about one in your family, ask where it came from. A grandmother may tell you about a tree, a sea or a month. For more Turkish words with a story, see 15 Turkish words every kid should hear before age 8 and our Turkish gifts for a new baby.