Baby names · Turkish origin

Between the Aegean and the steppe

Turkish names sit where Central Asian Turkic roots meet centuries of Persian and Arabic borrowing. The element ay (moon) is among the most productive in the language, giving Ayla, Aylin, Aysel and Ilkay. The twentieth-century republic also revived plain Turkish nouns as given names — Umut (hope), Deniz (sea), Şafak (dawn) — a deliberate break from Ottoman court forms. Stress falls on the final syllable and vowel harmony keeps the sound even.

12 Turkish names in our library · 6 girl, 3 boy, 3 unisex