100 Turkish Boy Names With Meanings and Pronunciations

Abdullah

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Servant of God
• Pronunciation: ab-dool-LAH
• Variations: Abdallah, Abd Allah
• Namesakes: Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, father of the Prophet Muhammad

Abdullah is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic Abd Allah, and it states its own meaning plainly: this boy belongs to God. Faithful service to Allah sits at the center of Islamic practice, which is why the name has stayed in steady use across the Muslim world for centuries instead of cycling in and out of fashion. Its most famous bearer was Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the father of the Prophet Muhammad. Four syllables is a lot for an English ear, but the stress lands on the last one, so the name moves faster than it looks.

Adem

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: Son of the red earth
• Pronunciation: ah-DEM
• Variations: Adam
• Namesakes: Soccer player Adem Buyuk, actor Adem Cejvan

Adem is the Turkish form of Adam, which traces back to the Hebrew adamah, meaning ground or soil. That puts it at the front of the earthy baby names still in daily use, since Genesis has God shaping the first man out of the earth of the garden.

In Turkey and Bosnia the name reads as devout without feeling heavy, and it travels well: an American teacher will get Adem right on the first try. Soccer player Adem Buyuk and actor Adem Cejvan keep it current. If you want the biblical root without the crowd that comes with Adam, this is the swap.

Adlee

• Origin: Arabic, via Turkish
• Meaning: Just, fair
• Pronunciation: AD-lee
• Variations: Adli, Adley

Adlee comes from the Arabic root for justice, and a second reading gives it as he whom God judges. Either way it points a child toward fairness, which is a gentler ambition than the lions and conquerors crowding the rest of this list.

One practical warning for Turkish American families. The near-identical Adley reads as a girl’s name in the United States, so a boy named Adlee may spend a lot of his life correcting forms.

Ahmet

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Highly praised
• Pronunciation: ah-MET
• Variations: Ahmad, Ahmed

Ahmet is Turkey’s version of the Arabic Ahmad, built on the verb hameda, to thank or to praise. In the Quran, Surah 61:6, Jesus foretells a messenger named Ahmad who will follow him, and most readers take that as another name for the Prophet Muhammad.

The spelling is what makes it Turkish. Arabic-speaking countries keep the d, Turkey hardens it to a t, and the result was one of the three most common male names in the country in 2013 figures, alongside Mehmet and Mustafa. Ahmad first charted in the United States in the 1970s and sat at #624 in 2020, while Ahmet has never registered there at all, so it arrives as a familiar sound in an unfamiliar spelling. Among Middle Eastern names it is about as safe a pick as exists.

Ali

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Lofty, exalted
• Pronunciation: ah-LEE
• Namesakes: Ali ibn Abi Talib, fourth caliph and cousin of the Prophet Muhammad
• Popularity: #306 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,116 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 36% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ali is three letters and almost no effort, which is rare for a name carrying this much history. Ali was the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and closest companion, and after Muhammad’s death he became the fourth caliph, the ruler of the Islamic community. Shia and Sunni Muslims honor him for different reasons and both honor him deeply.

For an American family the appeal is practical as well as religious. Ali is spelled the way it sounds, fits a toddler and a grown man equally, and sits second in the double names Turkish parents like, as in Ali Asaf.

Alpaslan

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Heroic lion
• Pronunciation: alp-ahs-LAHN
• Variations: Alparslan, Alp Arslan
• Popularity: Ranked #8 in Turkey

Alpaslan joins alp, a brave warrior, to aslan, lion, and the man who wore it first earned every syllable. Alp Arslan was the second sultan of the Seljuk Empire, ruling from 1063 until his assassination in 1072, and in 1071 he beat the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert.

That one battle opened Anatolia to Turkic settlement and set up everything that later became Turkey, which is why the name still reads as patriotic rather than merely tough. Soccer players Alpaslan Eratli and Alpaslan Ozturk carry it now, so it has a sporting edge alongside the history. Turkish parents keep it near the top of the charts and rarely shorten it.

Altan

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Red dawn
• Pronunciation: ahl-TAHN
• Variations: Altin, Altun

Altan is usually read as red dawn, the color of the sky just before sunrise, and it doubles as a surname across Turkey. Some sources tie it instead to the Turkic altin, gold, and the Mongolian altan carries that same golden sense, so the name sits somewhere between first light and precious metal.

It is one of the more polished picks among names meaning red: two syllables, no unfamiliar letters, and an ending American ears already love in Sebastian, Rowan, and Nolan. Outside Turkey it has barely been used, which is exactly the argument for it.

Asaf

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: Gatherer, harvest
• Pronunciation: ah-SAHF
• Variations: Asif, Asaph
• Popularity: #5,225 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (18 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 84% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Asaf is Hebrew rather than Turkish, but Turkish parents have adopted it hard, mostly as the second half of a double name. Omer Asaf, Ali Asaf, and Emir Asaf all sat inside the country’s top 60 in 2020 while Asaf on its own trailed well behind them.

In the Quran, Asaf, spelled Asif in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, is Solomon’s vizier, remembered for wisdom and good counsel rather than power. Pair it with a strong first name and you get the rhythm Turkish families have been using for a generation.

Aslan

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Lion
• Pronunciation: ahs-LAHN
• Variations: Arslan, Arsalan
• Namesakes: Aslan-Bey Sharvashidze, prince of Abkhazia

Aslan is simply the Turkish word for lion, which is why C.S. Lewis handed it to the great lion of Narnia and why generations of English-speaking children already know how to say it.

The older Turkic form Arslan runs through royal history, most famously in Alp Arslan, the second Seljuk sultan, whose name means heroic lion and who broke the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071. Aslan-Bey Sharvashidze, the short-lived prince of the Principality of Abkhazia, carried the shorter version.

For American parents it lands as a fresher relative of Alan, Allan, and Arlan, with a meaning none of them can match.

Ayaz

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Frost, clear cold night
• Pronunciation: ah-YAHZ

Ayaz describes the particular cold of a clear winter night, and it comes from the Proto-Turkic anar, meaning clear or sky. That makes it an obvious pick for a December baby and one of the prettiest names that mean winter, ice, or snow.

Turkish children also know Ayaz Ata, Frost Father, who brings New Year presents alongside his companion Kar Kiz, Snow Girl. Having a folk gift-bringer attached to your name is a small gift in itself. Two syllables, five letters, no tricky sounds, and it sits beside Aiden and Asa without asking anyone to work for it.

Aybars

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: There is the moon
• Pronunciation: eye-BARS
• Popularity: #12,239 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Aybars opens with ay, the Turkish word for moon, which alone puts it among the better baby names that mean moon. The second half is usually traced to the Proto-Turkic bar, there exists, giving the reading there is the moon.

Its exact origin is genuinely unsettled, and that is worth saying plainly rather than picking the prettier story. What is not in doubt is its standing at home, where it has been a fashionable choice for years while staying rare in the States. American ears hear eye-BARS and get it right away.

Aziz

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Powerful, beloved
• Pronunciation: ah-ZEEZ
• Namesakes: Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar, writer Aziz Nesin

Aziz travels further than almost any name here. It works as a first and last name in Arabic, Hebrew, and Assyrian, and just as naturally in Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, and Urdu, which makes it one of the more portable strong baby boy names.

In antiquity Aziz was the Palmyrene Arab god of the morning star, usually shown on camelback beside his twin brother Arsu. The modern namesakes are better company. Aziz Sancar, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on how cells repair damaged DNA, and the satirist Aziz Nesin put his book earnings toward children in need.

Balian

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Master, lord
• Pronunciation: BAH-lee-ahn
• Variations: Barisan
• Namesakes: Balian of Ibelin, 12th-century crusader lord of Jerusalem

Balian may come from the Turkish bal, master, though the roots are genuinely murky and no source settles them. The earliest recorded bearer was Balian of Ibelin, the 12th-century crusader lord tied to the fall of Jerusalem, and Barisan is the older spelling of the same name.

It is a rare choice with an unusually soft sound for this list, closer to Julian than to any of the lion names around it. Nothing about the spelling trips an English speaker up, which is not something you can say about most of the picks here.

Baran

• Origin: Turkish, Kurdish, Persian
• Meaning: Rain
• Pronunciation: bah-RAHN
• Namesakes: Filmmaker Baran bo Odar

Baran means rain, and the gender flips with the border. Turkish and Kurdish families give it to boys, Persian families usually to girls, so the same five letters read differently depending on who is reading them.

In Polish, Russian, Slovak, and Hungarian, Baran is an old nickname meaning ram, handed to shepherds and to men who would not back down. The best-known modern bearer is Baran bo Odar, the German filmmaker of Turkish descent behind the series Dark. For a baby born during a downpour, the story writes itself.

Baris

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Peace
• Pronunciation: bah-RUSH
• Namesakes: Basketball player Baris Hersek, musician Baris Akarsu
• Popularity: #9,825 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (7 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 7% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Baris is the Turkish word for peace, and at home it is written with an s-cedilla, which turns the final sound into sh. Spelled without it, English speakers will say BAR-iss, so decide early which pronunciation your family plans to defend.

It ran hot in Turkey through the 1970s and 1980s and never really left, carried along by director Baris Eyriboz, basketball player Baris Hersek, and the late rock singer Baris Akarsu. A peace name that still sounds masculine to Turkish ears is not easy to find, and that is most of the reason it lasted.

Batuhan

• Origin: Turkish, Mongolian
• Meaning: Strong ruler
• Pronunciation: bah-too-HAHN
• Namesakes: Batu Khan, founder of the Golden Horde

Batuhan is built from batu, firm in Mongolian and prevailing or strong in Turkish, plus han, the Turkish form of khan, ruler. It points straight at Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, who founded the Golden Horde and whose empire governed Kievan Rus, Volga Bulgaria, Cumania, and the Caucasus for roughly 250 years. That makes it one of the least subtle baby names that mean warrior, and Turkish parents use it without irony. Three syllables is a lot, though the han ending gives it a hard landing that keeps it from dragging.

Bayram

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Festival, holiday
• Pronunciation: bye-RAHM
• Namesakes: Olympic boxer Bayram Sit

Bayram is the Turkish word for a nationally celebrated holiday, so calling your son Bayram is close to calling him Festival. Boys have carried it for centuries anyway, from the Mughal commander Bairam Khan to the Olympic boxer Bayram Sit.

It is a cheerful, uncomplicated name in a list full of lions and conquerors, and that contrast is the whole appeal.

Berat

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Uncertain, possibly a royal charter
• Pronunciation: beh-RAHT
• Namesakes: Politician Berat Albayrak, footballer Berat Sadik

Berat is one of the few names here whose meaning nobody can pin down. The likeliest source is the Ottoman berat, a charter or letters patent issued by the sultan, though the link is unproven and honest sources say so.

Turkish and Albanian families use it heavily regardless, and by 2013 it stood among the three most common newborn boys’ names in Turkey, behind only Yusuf. Berat Albayrak served as Turkey’s Minister of Treasury and Finance, and Berat Sadik played international soccer for Finland.

Bilal

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Moisture, wetting
• Pronunciation: bee-LAHL
• Namesakes: Bilal ibn Rabah, the first muezzin in Islam
• Popularity: #1,212 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (167 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 27% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

The meaning is unpromising and the story behind it is not. Bilal ibn Rabah was born in Mecca around 580 and enslaved under the Banu Jumah clan, his mother an Abyssinian woman taken captive. He converted to Islam early, was tortured for it, and was freed when Abu Bakr bought him out.

Muhammad then chose him as Islam’s first muezzin, the man who calls the faithful to prayer, for his deep and melodious voice, and in 630 Bilal gave the call from the Kaaba itself. Muslim families have named sons for him ever since, and Turkish parents keep it just inside the top 100 without it ever turning ordinary.

Bugra

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Male camel
• Pronunciation: boo-RAH
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2003 at #11,118 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Bugra is a male camel, sometimes read more narrowly as a young or two-humped one. On a peninsula crossed by caravan routes for a thousand years that was a compliment rather than a joke, and the name still carries the sense of an animal built for hard country.

The g in the middle is Turkish soft g, which lengthens the vowel instead of making a sound of its own, so the whole thing collapses to boo-RAH and looks far harder than it is. It is one of the more charming animal names for babies and one of the few cute baby boy names no American classroom has heard yet.

Bunyamin

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: Son of the right hand
• Pronunciation: boon-yah-MEEN
• Variations: Benjamin, Binyamin

Bunyamin is the Turkish route to Benjamin, arriving through Arabic rather than through English. The Hebrew original means son of the right hand, the side of favor and strength.

In the Old Testament, Benjamin is Jacob’s youngest son and the founder of the Israelite tribe that carried his name, a story Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readers all share. Turkish families get a devout name that an English speaker can still trace back to a cousin named Ben.

Burak

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Lightning
• Pronunciation: boo-RAHK
• Namesakes: Actor Burak Ozcivit
• Popularity: #10,886 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 2% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Burak comes from the Arabic Buraq, the winged creature of Islamic tradition that carries prophets from place to place, and the root behind it is barq, lightning. That is where the sense of speed comes from.

Turkish television has done the rest. Burak Ozcivit starred in Kara Sevda, sold around the world as Endless Love, and the name has ridden that wave through the charts. It is short, hard-edged, and easy for Americans to say on the first attempt.

Can

• Origin: Persian, via Turkish
• Meaning: Soul, life
• Pronunciation: JAHN
• Variations: Jan, Canberk

Can is the most misread name on this list. The Turkish c is pronounced like the English j, so Can sounds like John and nothing like a tin of soup. Every American form your son ever fills out will get this wrong.

The word comes from the Persian jan, soul, and Turkish speakers use it as a term of affection the way English speakers use dear. The Circassians use it as a short form of Janberk, alternatively spelled Canberk, meaning strong warrior. Three letters, one syllable, and a meaning as large as any here.

Cavit

• Origin: Persian
• Meaning: Eternal, everlasting
• Pronunciation: jah-VEET
• Variations: Javit, Javid

Cavit is the Turkish spelling of the Persian name Javid, meaning long-lasting or eternal, and the c again does the work of an English j. Ottoman officer Cavit Erdel and Olympic cyclist Cavit Cav carried it through the last century. It is a soft name in a list of hard ones, with the kind of meaning a boy grows into rather than out of.

Cem

• Origin: Persian, via Turkish
• Meaning: Twin
• Pronunciation: JEM
• Variations: Jam, Jamshid
• Namesakes: Cem Sultan, Ottoman claimant to the throne

Cem is Turkey’s version of the Persian Jam, itself a clipped form of Jamshid, the legendary king of Persian myth. It sounds exactly like the English word gem, since the Turkish c takes a j sound.

The historical Cem, born in 1459, was a son of Mehmed the Conqueror who lost the succession fight to his older brother Bayezid in June 1481 and spent the rest of his life in Egypt, Rhodes, France, and Rome as a comfortable prisoner of whoever held him. He died in Naples in 1495.

The meaning gives twin parents an easy answer, though it works just as well for a boy who is his father’s double.

Cemil

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Handsome, beautiful
• Pronunciation: jeh-MEEL
• Variations: Jamil, Gamil, Djemil

Cemil is the Turkish form of the Arabic Jamil, and the meaning is exactly what it looks like: handsome. Egypt says Gamil, North Africa says Djemil, and Turkey softens the whole thing into three quiet syllables.

It is one of the friendlier picks among these attractive boy names, and it comes with a built-in answer for boy-girl twins, since the feminine Cemile is the same name with one letter added.

Cetin

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Hard, tough
• Pronunciation: cheh-TEEN
• Namesakes: Singer Cetin Alp, director Cetin Inanc

Cetin means hard or rough in the sense of unyielding, and the Turkish spelling starts with a c-cedilla, so the first sound is ch rather than s or k. Written plainly it will be misread everywhere outside Turkey.

It is genuinely old-fashioned at home, off the charts since the early 1980s and attached mostly to men born in the 1930s and 1940s. Two of them are worth knowing: pop singer Cetin Alp, and director Cetin Inanc, whose low-budget space film Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam earned the nickname the Turkish Star Wars. Grandpa names come back eventually, and this one is due.

Cinar

• Origin: Persian, via Turkish
• Meaning: Plane tree
• Pronunciation: chih-NAHR
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2017 at #11,036 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, unchanged over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Cinar is the plane tree, borrowed from the Persian chenar, and in Ottoman practice those trees were planted in conquered territory as a living marker of sovereignty. A tree that stands for greatness and permanence is a lot to hand a newborn, and Turkish parents do it happily. At home it is written with a c-cedilla and a dotless i, which is why the sound is chih-NAHR rather than anything an English speaker would guess. It has been a genuine top 20 name in Turkey and is completely unknown in the United States, which is the best possible combination for a nature name.

Davut

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: Beloved
• Pronunciation: dah-VOOT
• Variations: Daud, Davud, Davoud

Davut is the Turkish David, and the whole story travels with it. David starts as a shepherd boy, drops Goliath with a sling, and ends as king of Israel, which is why the name reads as underdog and ruler at the same time.

Arabic speakers say Daud, Persian speakers Davud or Davoud, and each version belongs to a scripture that treats David as a prophet as well as a king. For a family wanting David without the six other Davids in the classroom, the Turkish spelling does the job while keeping the sound close.

Dervis

• Origin: Persian, via Arabic
• Meaning: One who seeks, beggar
• Pronunciation: dehr-VEESH
• Variations: Darwish, Dervish

Dervis names the Sufi ascetic who takes a vow of poverty, a figure that has existed in Anatolia since the 12th century. English borrowed the same word as dervish and kept it mostly in the phrase whirling dervish, after the spinning ritual dance the order is known for.

The Turkish spelling ends in an s-cedilla, so it is said dehr-VEESH, not with an s. It ranks nowhere in Turkey or the United States, which makes it rare in both directions, and the meaning is unusually humble for a boy’s name.

Devrim

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Revolution
• Pronunciation: dev-REEM

Devrim means revolution, and it is rarer in Turkey than the sound and the meaning would predict. Part of the reason is that Devrim was also the name of the first car designed and built in Turkey, so the association is closer to naming an American boy Bronco than to naming him Che.

Set the car aside and it is a strong two-syllable name with a hard opening and a clean finish. In the United States it could work as an unexpected route to the sound of Devin, with a meaning that carries considerably more weight.

Doruk

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Summit, mountaintop
• Pronunciation: DAW-rook
• Popularity: #7,813 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (10 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 11% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Doruk is the peak of a mountain, the highest point of anything. It first reached the Turkish charts in 2009 and climbed steadily for the next decade, which makes it one of the genuinely modern names here rather than a revival.

Almost nobody outside Turkey has used it, so an American Doruk would likely be the only one anywhere he goes. For parents drawn to nature names that are not another River or Forest, or looking for an unexpected turn on Derek, this is the one to sit with.

Efe

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Older brother
• Pronunciation: EH-feh
• Popularity: #6,559 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (13 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 11% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Efe means older brother, which makes it a natural pick for a firstborn and a slightly funny one for a youngest. It is the rare entry here whose meaning is about family position rather than power.

It jumped twenty places on the Turkish charts in a single year, which is a fast climb for a country whose top names barely move. It is also a variation of the Nigerian Efetobore, achieving wealth, and a short form of the Greek Euphemia, well-spoken. Two syllables, four letters, and impossible to mispronounce.

Egemen

• Origin: Greek, via Turkish
• Meaning: Sovereign, dominant
• Pronunciation: eh-geh-MEN
• Namesakes: Diplomat Egemen Bagis, basketball player Egemen Guven

Egemen means sovereign, and it came into Turkish from the Greek word igemonas, prince or leader. It serves as both a surname and a given name in Turkey. The bearers fit the meaning almost too neatly: former ambassador Egemen Bagis, fitness figure Egemen Ertugrul, and basketball player Egemen Guven. Three even syllables give it a formal, unhurried sound, which suits a name this direct about authority.

Emin

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Trustworthy, honest
• Pronunciation: eh-MEEN
• Variations: Amin, Ameen, Amien

Emin is the Turkish, Bosnian, and Azerbaijani form of the Arabic Amin, and it means trustworthy, which is a quieter thing to wish on a son than most of the meanings here.

It had a second, administrative life in the Ottoman Empire, where an emin was the official who managed revenue and collected duties on foreign goods. Modern bearers include the American-Albanian fashion photographer Emin Kadi and NATO official Emin Cihangir Aksit. Short, warm, and impossible to shorten further.

Emirhan

• Origin: Arabic, Turkish
• Meaning: Princely ruler
• Pronunciation: eh-meer-HAHN
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #12,861 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, unchanged over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Emirhan stacks two titles on top of each other: amir, prince, and han, the Turkish khan, ruler. Naming a boy prince-king is not subtle, and Turkish parents have been doing it enthusiastically for two decades.

The upside is that it never sounds fussy out loud, since the stress falls on the final syllable and lands hard. The downside is the obvious one, which every parent of an Emirhan has presumably made peace with.

Emre

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Friend, brother
• Pronunciation: EM-reh
• Namesakes: Chess grandmaster Emre Can, director Emre Sahin

Emre means friend, and the association goes deeper than the definition, because it is the name of Yunus Emre, the mystic poet who shaped how Turkish itself gets written. Choosing Emre is choosing the friendliest word in the language and its most beloved poet at once.

It reads exactly as it is spelled, which puts it well ahead of most names here for American use. Chess grandmaster Emre Can and award-winning director Emre Sahin carry it now. If Emery and Emory feel worn out, this is the same sound with a different history.

Enes

• Origin: Arabic, Turkish
• Meaning: Close friend, human being
• Pronunciation: eh-NESS
• Variations: Anis, Enis

Enes has two plausible roots and both are worth having. One runs through the Turkish insan, human being, which itself comes from nasiya, to forget, a quiet reminder that people lose their way and can find it again.

The other makes it the Turkish and Bosnian form of the Arabic Anis, meaning genial or close friend. Enis is the alternate spelling. A name that means either humanity or friendship is not a bad hand to deal a child.

Ensar

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Helper
• Pronunciation: en-SAHR
• Variations: Ansar

Ensar comes from the Arabic Ansar, the name given to the people of Medina who opened their homes to Muhammad and his followers after they fled Mecca. The word means helpers, and it is a title of honor rather than a description.

That history gives the name an unusually specific meaning: not strong, not noble, but the one who takes people in. Modern bearers include the Kurdish-German rapper Ensar Albayrak, known as Eno, and Bosnian soccer player Ensar Arifovic.

Enver

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Luminous, brightest
• Pronunciation: en-VEHR
• Variations: Anwar
• Namesakes: Professor Enver Duran, writer Enver Galim

Enver is the Turkish, Albanian, Bosnian, and Crimean Tatar form of the Arabic Anwar, meaning the most luminous. It works as a first name and a last name, which is why it shows up on both sides of a signature.

Its bearers cover more ground than most: the Turkish actress Asli Enver on the surname side, surgeon and professor Enver Duran, and the Tatar writer Enver Galim, who translated the Bible into Tatar. Two syllables, a hard v in the middle, and a meaning about light rather than force.

Erdem

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Virtue, merit
• Pronunciation: air-DEM
• Namesakes: Fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu, composer Erdem Helvacioglu
• Popularity: #8,452 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (9 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 45% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Erdem means virtue in the old sense, the settled quality of character rather than a rule followed. The word dates to the high middle ages and turns up in 11th-century Turkic writing, which makes it one of the genuinely ancient entries here. Its modern bearers are unusually creative for a name this stern: London-based fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu and film composer Erdem Helvacioglu. A virtue name that sounds nothing like Chastity or Prudence is a rare find.

Eren

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Saint, one who has reached
• Pronunciation: eh-REN
• Popularity: #882 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (270 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 373% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Eren describes someone who has arrived, in the spiritual sense, which Turkish uses for a saint or an enlightened person. It is a big idea packed into four letters.

It sat inside Turkey’s top 50 in 2020 and had already reached the top 1,000 in England and Wales, so it is quietly spreading. American parents have not found it yet, which makes it a cool name to reach for if Aaron, Aron, and Erin all feel spoken for.

Erhan

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Manly leader
• Pronunciation: air-HAHN

Erhan joins er, man, to han, the Turkish khan, so the meaning lands somewhere between brave man and chief. It was a top 50 name in Turkey through the 1980s, fell off in the 1990s, and has not come back.

That gap is exactly what makes it interesting now. A name that peaked forty years ago is far enough away to feel fresh again to Turkish grandparents and completely new to everyone else.

Ertugrul

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Brave man, bird of prey
• Pronunciation: er-too-ROOL
• Namesakes: Ertugrul Gazi, father of Osman I

Ertugrul joins er, brave man, to tugrul, the mythological falcon that guards heroes in old Turkic story. The g is a soft g, which lengthens the vowel rather than making a sound, so the whole name runs er-too-ROOL.

The man behind it was the father of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire. He held the frontier town of Sogut, which became the first Ottoman capital, and died there around 1280. A coin reading Osman son of Ertugrul is the hard evidence that he existed at all, since almost everything else about his life was written down generations later.

Turkish tradition calls him Ertugrul Gazi, gazi meaning a champion fighter for the faith, and the television series built on his life has pushed the name well beyond Turkey.

Eyman

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Righteous, blessed
• Pronunciation: ay-MAHN
• Variations: Eymen, Aiman, Aymen
• Popularity: Ranked #3 in Turkey in 2020

Eyman builds on the Arabic root for right, giving righteous, right-handed, or blessed. Turkey usually writes it Eymen; Arabic-speaking countries prefer Aiman, Aimen, or Aymen, and all of them are the same name.

It sat at #3 in Turkey in 2020, which puts it among the most-used boys’ names in the country while staying almost unknown in the United States. Short, warm, and easy on English tongues, it is one of the more exportable picks here.

Faruk

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: One who distinguishes right from wrong
• Pronunciation: fah-ROOK
• Variations: Farouk, Farooq, Faruq

Faruk is a title before it is a name. Al-Farooq was given to Umar ibn al-Khattab, who opposed Islam until he read the Quran, converted, and became one of Muhammad’s most loyal companions, carrying the faith forward after the prophet’s death.

The word describes the ability to tell good from evil, which is a heavier thing to carry than lion or conqueror. Spellings run from Farouk to Farooq to Farouq depending on the country, and Faruk is the Turkish one.

Fatih

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Conqueror
• Pronunciation: FAH-tih
• Variations: Fathi
• Namesakes: Mehmed II, called Fatih Sultan Mehmed

Fatih is the title Turks give Mehmed II, who took Constantinople in 1453 at the age of 21 after a 57-day siege and ended the Byzantine Empire in the process. Fatih Sultan Mehmed is how he is still named on schools, bridges, and street signs across the country.

The name itself means conqueror, from the Arabic Fathi. It is a top 100 name in both Turkey and Bosnia and almost unheard of in English-speaking countries, partly because the h at the end gives Americans trouble. Say FAH-tih and you are close enough.

Ferman

• Origin: Persian, via Turkish
• Meaning: Royal decree
• Pronunciation: fair-MAHN
• Variations: Farmaan, Fermann

A ferman was an edict issued under the sultan’s seal, borrowed into Turkish from the Persian farmaan. As a given name it means, roughly, the word that settles the matter.

Confusingly, Ferman is also a German name, a variant of the surname Fehrmann, meaning ferryman, and in the United States it has been almost exclusively a last name. That is no longer the obstacle it once was, with Graham, Sawyer, and Hudson all inside the American top 200 in 2020. Ferman fits that pattern exactly.

Feyzi

• Origin: Persian, via Arabic
• Meaning: Grace, abundance
• Pronunciation: fay-ZEE
• Namesakes: General Feyzi Menguc, ice hockey player Feyzi Ahsen Bore

Feyzi comes from the Persian and Arabic fayz, meaning grace or an overflowing abundance, and it has stayed rare enough that the few men who carry it are easy to count. Ottoman general Feyzi Menguc and ice hockey player Feyzi Ahsen Bore are the ones most often named. It has the sound of an old family name rather than a trend, which is precisely its appeal for parents tired of hearing their pick called out on a playground.

Furkan

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Criterion, proof
• Pronunciation: foor-KAHN
• Variations: Furqan
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2021 at #12,750 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, down 6% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Al-Furqan, the Criterion, is the 25th chapter of the Quran and one of the Quran’s own titles, naming its role as the standard that separates right from wrong. Furkan is the Turkish spelling of that word.

So the meaning is abstract in a way most boys’ names are not: not a lion or a king, but the measure you judge things by. It has been a solid top 40 name in Turkey for years, and the hard k in the middle keeps it from sounding delicate.

Galip

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Victor, one who prevails
• Pronunciation: gah-LEEP
• Variations: Ghalib

Galip is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic Ghalib, meaning the one who comes out on top. Turkish hardens the final consonant, so it ends in a p sound rather than a b.

It is one of the more unusual entries here, uncommon even in Turkey, which makes it a real find for parents who want a victory name that nobody else has taken. There is also a galip nut, a tree native to the Pacific islands grown for food, timber, and shade, though the two words are unrelated.

Hakan

• Origin: Turkish, Mongolian
• Meaning: Ruler, king of kings
• Pronunciation: hah-KAHN
• Variations: Khakan, Khaqan
• Namesakes: Swimmer Hakan Kiper, singer Hakan Peker

Hakan comes from Khagan, the old Turkic and Mongolian title for an emperor who ruled over other rulers. Khakan and Khaqan are the same word in other alphabets.

It was everywhere in Turkey through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, carried by Olympic swimmer Hakan Kiper and pop singer Hakan Peker, and it now has the settled feel of a father’s name rather than a baby’s.

There is a bonus for mixed families: Hakan is also a common name in Sweden, where it descends from the Old Norse Hakon, meaning high son. Two unrelated languages, one spelling, both meaning something like nobility.

Halil

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Close friend
• Pronunciation: hah-LEEL
• Variations: Khalil, Khaleel
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2020 at #12,741 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, up 7% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Halil is the Turkish form of the Arabic Khalil, and Turkish parents often extend it into Halil Ibrahim, friend of Abraham, which ranked only a few places behind plain Halil in 2020. Both forms mean the same warm thing.

Bearers cover the whole Turkish century, from Ottoman colonel Halil Sami Bey to historian Halil Berktay and Olympic wrestler Halil Kaya. For English speakers it is one of the easiest names here, since Khalil is already familiar and Halil only drops a letter.

Hamza

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Lion, steadfast
• Pronunciation: HAHM-zah
• Variations: Hamzah, Humza, Hamzeh
• Namesakes: Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, uncle of the Prophet Muhammad
• Popularity: #541 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (556 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 52% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Hamza has no Turkish roots at all and still cracked the Turkish top 10, which tells you how far the story behind it carries. Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib was an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, a wrestler and archer remembered above all for his courage in battle.

The meanings attached to it run lion, strong, and steadfast, and Muslim families across every continent use it. Humza, Hamzah, and Hamzeh are the common alternate spellings. The z in the middle gives it a snap that few religious names have.

Hasim

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: One who crushes or breaks
• Pronunciation: hah-SHEEM
• Variations: Hashim, Hashem, Hachem

The meaning sounds violent and the story is the opposite. Hashim was a nickname given to the Prophet Muhammad’s great-grandfather because he broke and crumbled bread into broth to feed pilgrims arriving in Mecca. The crushing in question is of a loaf.

Turkish writes it with an s-cedilla, which makes the sound sh rather than s, so it is hah-SHEEM. Hashem, Hachem, and Hasyim are the spellings you will meet elsewhere. A name that honors feeding strangers is a quietly good thing to hand a son.

Ihsan

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Excellence, perfection
• Pronunciation: eeh-SAHN
• Variations: Ehsan

Ihsan is a working concept in Islam, not just a word. It describes doing everything as though God were standing in front of you, which sets the bar somewhere above doing your best. The root is husn, beauty.

Persian, Urdu, and Kurdish speakers use it too, usually as Ehsan. It is short, unfamiliar in English-speaking countries, and carries an idea worth explaining to a child who asks about his name.

Ismail

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: God has heard
• Pronunciation: ees-mah-EEL
• Variations: Ishmael, Ismael
• Popularity: #1,065 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (204 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 40% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ismail was Abraham’s firstborn, the son of Hagar, and the name means God has heard, a reference to the prayer answered by his birth. Muslims count him as a prophet and an ancestor of the Prophet Muhammad, and as the founder of several Arab tribes.

That gives it standing across three faiths, though the spelling splits by language: Ishmael in English Bibles, Ismail across Turkey and the Arab world. Among biblical boy names it is one of the few that reads as genuinely global rather than Sunday-school.

Kaan

• Origin: Turkish, Mongolian
• Meaning: Ruler, king of kings
• Pronunciation: KAHN
• Namesakes: Rock singer Kaan Tangoze, soccer player Kaan Ayhan

Kaan is Hakan with the h knocked off, running back to the same Khagan, the title an emperor of emperors carried across the Turkic and Mongol world. The doubled a simply lengthens the vowel, so it is said KAHN, one syllable. It is popular across western Asia, especially in Turkey and Cyprus, and its bearers skew young and modern: rock singer Kaan Tangoze and international soccer player Kaan Ayhan. Four letters, one beat, and a meaning that outranks almost everything else on this list.

Kadir

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Powerful, capable
• Pronunciation: kah-DEER
• Variations: Qadir, Kader, Quadir

Kadir is the Turkish form of Qadir, one of the 99 names of God in Islam, meaning the all-powerful or the able. Naming a child after a divine attribute is standard practice in Muslim families and is meant as aspiration rather than comparison.

Ghader, Kader, Qader, and Quadir are the same name in other spellings. Two clean syllables, no unfamiliar sounds, and it ages well from crib to boardroom.

Kahraman

• Origin: Persian, via Turkish
• Meaning: Hero
• Pronunciation: kah-rah-MAHN
• Namesakes: Businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu

Kahraman is borrowed from the Persian qahraman, hero, and it also renders an Arabic word for amber. In Turkey it works mostly as a surname, which makes it an unusual and slightly bold choice as a first name.

Businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu is the best-known first-name bearer. Three syllables with the stress at the end give it a rolling, almost ceremonial rhythm, so it suits a long surname better than a short one.

Kemal

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Perfection, maturity
• Pronunciation: keh-MAHL
• Variations: Kamal

Kemal is the Turkish Kamal, and the perfection it names is moral rather than physical: a person of complete character. It sometimes stands in for the longer Kamal ad-Din, perfection of the faith.

No Turkish name carries more national weight, since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the republic and gave the country its modern alphabet in 1928. That association makes Kemal patriotic in Turkey and simply handsome everywhere else. A separate Sanskrit Kamal, used in Pakistan, means lotus.

Kerem

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Generosity, nobility
• Pronunciation: keh-REM
• Variations: Karim, Kareem

Kerem is the Turkish relative of the Arabic Karim, another of the 99 names of God, meaning the generous one. Turkish spells and says it its own way, keh-REM, rather than the ka-REEM English speakers know from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kareem entered the American charts in 1972 as the basketball star was making his name and still sat at #638 in 2020. Kerem stays Turkish, which is the point of picking it. It also carries the older sense of a vineyard, a generous thing in itself.

Kuzey

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: North
• Pronunciation: KOO-zay
• Popularity: #5,321 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (18 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 37% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Kuzey is simply the Turkish word for north, and it owes most of its popularity to television. Kuzey Guney, North South, followed two brothers named for opposite directions and made the name a fixture on Turkish birth certificates.

It is a direction name in the same family as the American Wren and Sailor: concrete, short, and hard to date. For a family looking past Casey and Cody, Kuzey covers the same sound with a compass point behind it.

Levent

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Handsome, tall, spirited
• Pronunciation: leh-VENT
• Variations: Levend
• Namesakes: Actor Levent Kirca, musician Levent Coker

Levent began as levend, the term for irregular soldiers and marines hired by the Ottoman navy outside the formal army. Over time the word slid from the job to the type of man doing it, and modern Turkish uses it for someone handsome, tall, and a little roguish.

That drift from sailor to swagger is unusual and gives the name more character than a straight virtue word. Comedian and actor Levent Kirca and musician Levent Coker are the faces most Turks attach to it.

Mahir

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Skillful, expert
• Pronunciation: mah-HEER
• Variations: Maher
• Popularity: #1,405 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (130 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 157% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Mahir means genuinely good at something, the craftsman rather than the enthusiast, and it is written in Turkey with the dotted capital I that the Turkish alphabet keeps separate from the dotless one. Egyptian theater director and cartoonist Maher Sabry carries the Arabic spelling. It has hovered in the Turkish top 100 for years without ever becoming a fashion, which is usually the sign of a name with staying power.

Mehmet

• Origin: Arabic, via Turkish
• Meaning: Praiseworthy
• Pronunciation: MEH-met
• Variations: Muhammed, Mohamed
• Popularity: #5,143 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (19 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 9% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Mehmet is what happened to Muhammad after several centuries inside the Turkish language, and it is the most Turkish name here for exactly that reason. Both live side by side on the charts: in 2020 Mehmet ranked just above Muhammed Ali at 14th and Muhammed at 15th.

It has been one of Turkey’s most common male names for generations, and it travels through every territory the Ottomans once held, including Albania, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Mehmed II, who took Constantinople in 1453, is the bearer every Turkish schoolchild learns first.

Mert

• Origin: Persian, via Turkish
• Meaning: Manly, brave
• Pronunciation: MEHRT
• Namesakes: Photographer Mert Alas, model Mert Ocal
• Popularity: #4,340 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (24 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 26% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Mert comes from the Persian mard, man, and Turkish uses the word for someone straightforward and reliable as much as someone brave. Calling a friend mert is high praise.

It is short, blunt, and firmly inside the Turkish top 30, with bearers including fashion photographer Mert Alas, model Mert Ocal, and producer Mert Yucel. American use is the one problem: to English ears it sits uncomfortably close to the old-fashioned name Bert.

Mete

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Hero, brave warrior
• Pronunciation: MEH-teh
• Variations: Metehan
• Popularity: #6,334 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (14 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 3% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Mete is the Turkish rendering of Modu, the Middle Chinese name of the chieftain who founded the Xiongnu Empire on the Mongolian steppe, and it connects to the old Turkic bagatur, hero or warrior.

Turkish parents mostly reach for the longer Metehan, hero ruler, which ranked #21 in 2020 against plain Mete’s #96. The short form is the better bet for an English-speaking family: two syllables, both of them obvious, and a meaning older than most countries.

Mirac

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Ascent, ladder
• Pronunciation: mee-RAHCH
• Variations: Miraj
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2017 at #11,725 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, down 14% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Mirac names one of the central events in Islam. On the night journey, the Prophet Muhammad was carried from Mecca to Jerusalem by the winged Buraq and then ascended through the heavens, and the ascent itself is the Mirac.

The Turkish spelling ends in a c-cedilla, giving a ch sound, so it is mee-RAHCH rather than anything with a k. It sat at #2 in Turkey in 2020, second only to Yusuf, which makes it one of the country’s most-used names and one of its least known abroad.

Miran

• Origin: Kurdish, Turkish
• Meaning: Prince
• Pronunciation: mee-RAHN
• Popularity: #2,032 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (74 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 492% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Miran comes from the Kurdish mir, prince, and it is also the name of a Kurdish tribe that rose to dominance after the fall of the Cizre Botan. There is a separate Slovene Miran, built on miru, peace or world, with no connection to the first. It is one of the smoothest names here, three even sounds with nothing an English speaker has to be taught. That combination of top 20 popularity at home and near-invisibility abroad is what most parents reading this list are hunting for.

Murat

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Wished for, desired
• Pronunciation: moo-RAHT
• Variations: Murad

Murat means the thing that was wished for, which is a good deal more pointed than most name meanings and lands hard for parents who waited a long time.

It is the Turkish form of the Arabic Murad, and both spellings run through Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bengal, and Iran. For an American family it has the advantage of looking exactly like it sounds.

Musa

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: Drawn out of the water
• Pronunciation: MOO-sah
• Variations: Moses, Moshe
• Popularity: #470 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (651 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 191% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Musa is Moses in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, and the meaning points straight at the reed basket: drawn out of the water. He leads the Israelites out of Egypt in the Torah and the Bible, and the Quran treats him as one of its central prophets.

It stays inside the Turkish top 100 without ever spiking, which is what you would expect of a name three faiths agree on. Two soft syllables make it one of the gentlest sounds on this list.

Mustafa

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: The chosen one
• Pronunciation: moos-tah-FAH
• Variations: Mostafa, Moustapha
• Namesakes: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish republic

Mustafa is another title for the Prophet Muhammad, the chosen one, and it has been one of the three most common male names in Turkey for as long as records have been kept.

Its weight in Turkey comes from one man above all: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the republic and pushed through the 29-letter Turkish alphabet in 1928. Ottoman history offers a stranger bearer in Mustafa I, called both the Saint and the Mad, who held the throne from 1617 to 1618 and again from 1622 to 1623. Mostafa, Moustapha, and Moustafa are the spellings used elsewhere.

Omer Asaf

• Origin: Arabic, Hebrew
• Meaning: Long-lived gatherer
• Pronunciation: oh-MEHR ah-SAHF
• Popularity: Ranked #4 in Turkey in 2020

Omer Asaf is a double name, the pattern Turkish parents have leaned on hard for the last twenty years, and the pairing outranks either half on its own. It sat at #4 in Turkey in 2020 while Omer alone placed 5th and Asaf trailed at 78th.

Omer carries the sense of long life or flourishing, Asaf the Hebrew gatherer or harvester, so together they read as a long and abundant life. Double names have never caught on in the United States, so this one is likely to stay a Turkish pleasure.

Orhan

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Great leader
• Pronunciation: or-HAHN
• Variations: Orkhan
• Namesakes: Orhan Gazi, second Ottoman sultan; novelist Orhan Pamuk

Orhan is pronounced exactly the way it is spelled, which is half the reason it works so well outside Turkey. The other half is the company it keeps.

Orhan Gazi was the second Ottoman sultan, born around 1281 in Sogut as the son of Osman I. He ruled from the early 1320s until 1362 and took Bursa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia from the Byzantines, and the traveler Ibn Battuta called him the greatest of the Turcoman kings.

The modern bearers hold their own: Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Turkish-American physicist Asim Orhan Barut worked at the front of theoretical physics. Orkhan is the alternate spelling.

Osman

• Origin: Arabic, via Turkish
• Meaning: Wise, discerning
• Pronunciation: os-MAHN
• Variations: Usman, Uthman
• Namesakes: Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire
• Popularity: #1,157 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (181 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 109% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Osman is the Turkish form of the Arabic Uthman, and it is the name that gave an empire its English title. Osman I ruled from about 1299 to 1323, founded the small beylik that grew into the Ottoman state, and was the son of Ertugrul. By the 16th century Western writers had turned Osman into Ottoman, and the label stuck for six hundred years.

Some scholars think his birth name was actually Atman or Ataman and that he took the more prestigious Muslim name later in life, which is a fitting origin story for a name this widely traveled. Turkish, Kurdish, Bosnian, Albanian, Pakistani, and Egyptian families all use it.

There is a separate English surname Osman from the Norman period, built on the Old English elements for God and fame. For a Turkish American boy it slots in beside Damian, Desmond, and Truman without sounding borrowed from any of them.

Ozan

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Bard, poet-singer
• Pronunciation: oh-ZAHN
• Namesakes: Composer Ozan Colakoglu, pianist Ozan Marsh

An ozan is a bard, the singer who carried the old Turkic stories from town to town, so the name means something closer to storyteller than to musician. Its bearers have honored that: composer and producer Ozan Colakoglu, actor Ozan Guven, and the concert pianist Ozan Marsh. If your family runs to music, this is the pick, and it is short and clean enough that nobody outside Turkey will stumble over it.

Poyraz

• Origin: Greek, via Turkish
• Meaning: Northeasterly wind
• Pronunciation: poy-RAHZ

Poyraz is the specific cold wind that blows into Turkey from the northeast, and the word traces back to the Greek boreas, the north wind of myth. Sailors on the Black Sea have been naming it for centuries.

It works as a first name, a surname, and a village in Elazig Province, and it stays well inside Turkey’s top 100. The crime drama Poyraz Karayel, about an ex-officer going undercover against an Istanbul crime family, kept it in front of a national audience. Among names that mean wind, sky, or storm, few are this specific.

Ramazan

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: The ninth month of the Islamic calendar
• Pronunciation: rah-mah-ZAHN
• Variations: Ramadan, Ramzan
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #13,777 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, unchanged over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ramazan is the Turkish spelling of Ramadan, the month of fasting, prayer, and Quran recitation that Muslims observe from dawn to dusk for around thirty days. Boys born during it have traditionally been given the name outright.

It was a top 20 name in Turkey from the 1980s into the early 2000s and has drifted down since, which puts it in the sweet spot of familiar but no longer crowded. For a practicing family, few names on this list say as much in three syllables.

Salih

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Righteous, virtuous
• Pronunciation: sah-LEEH
• Variations: Saleh
• Popularity: #4,678 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (22 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 30% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Salih means upright in the moral sense, someone whose conduct is sound. In the Quran he is also a prophet sent to the tribe of Thamud long before Muhammad, which gives the name scriptural standing on top of its plain meaning.

Saleh is the usual spelling outside Turkey, and in Bosnia the patronymic surname Salihovic, son of Salih, spread it further. It holds a steady place in the Turkish top 100 without ever chasing a trend.

Selim

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Safe, sound, whole
• Pronunciation: seh-LEEM
• Variations: Salim, Saleem
• Namesakes: Selim I, Ottoman sultan
• Popularity: #2,638 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (50 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 152% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Selim is the Turkish form of the Arabic Salim, meaning safe and unharmed, which is about as direct a parental wish as a name can carry.

History gave it a harder edge. Selim I ruled from 1512 to 1520, beat the Mamluk Sultanate in 1516 and 1517, and took Syria, Palestine, the Hejaz, and Egypt, growing the empire by roughly seventy percent in eight years. Turks call him Yavuz Sultan Selim, and the double name Yavuz Selim ranked #45 in 2020, well above plain Selim’s #67.

Saleem and Salem are relatives worth knowing about, though the Hebrew Salem, peace, is a separate word.

Suleyman

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: Man of peace
• Pronunciation: sue-lay-MAHN
• Variations: Solomon, Sulaiman
• Popularity: #5,365 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (18 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 129% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Suleyman is Solomon in Turkish, built on the Hebrew shalom, peace. In the Old Testament he is David’s son, remembered for wealth and for judgment; in Islam he is a prophet said to understand the speech of animals and to command the jinn.

In Turkey the name belongs above all to Suleyman the Magnificent, who ruled at the height of Ottoman power. Four syllables makes it the longest name on this list, and the payoff is that a boy called Suleyman will never share it with anyone in his grade.

Talha

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Fruit tree, acacia
• Pronunciation: TAHL-hah
• Variations: Talhah
• Popularity: #2,831 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (45 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 38% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Talha names a fruit tree, which makes it a green, growing sort of name in a list otherwise full of lions and rulers. Its bearer is the reason it endures. Talha was one of the Prophet Muhammad’s most loyal companions, remembered for putting his own hand in the path of an arrow to shield him. That single image has kept the name in use across the Muslim world ever since.

Taner

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Born at dawn
• Pronunciation: tah-NEHR
• Namesakes: Historian Taner Akcam, actor Taner Olmez

Taner joins tan, the first light of morning, to er, man, so it belongs to a boy born as the sun comes up. It sits outside Turkey’s top 100, which makes it unusual at home as well as abroad.

For American parents it is a quiet upgrade on Tanner, an occupational surname meaning leather worker, with a far prettier meaning behind the same sound. Historian Taner Akcam and actor and singer Taner Olmez are the names to know. Compared with the English name it echoes, this one has somewhere to go.

Timur

• Origin: Turkic, Mongolic
• Meaning: Iron
• Pronunciation: tee-MOOR
• Variations: Temur, Temir, Tomor

Timur is iron, from the Proto-Turkic temur, and modern Turkish has since moved on to demir for the metal itself, leaving Timur to work purely as a name.

It reaches far past Turkey. Central Asia uses it heavily, and in Indonesia timur means east, tied to the hope of a rising sun. Temur, Temir, and Tomor are regional spellings. Two syllables of solid metal with no soft edges anywhere.

Yagiz

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Dark, chestnut-colored
• Pronunciation: yah-UHZ
• Namesakes: Basketball player Yagiz Kaba, actor Yagiz Can Konyali

Yagiz describes a dark chestnut coat, the color of a good horse, and Turkish uses it for a boy with dark hair and a bit of fire in him. The g is soft, so it disappears into the vowel and the whole name runs yah-UHZ.

It arrived on the Turkish charts in 2008 and has climbed steadily since, carried by basketball player Yagiz Kaba, midfielder Yagiz Goktug Tasbulak, and actor Yagiz Can Konyali of Bizim Hikaye. A color name that sounds tough rather than sweet is a rare thing.

Yakup

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: Supplanter, one who follows
• Pronunciation: yah-KOOP
• Variations: Jacob, Yaqub
• Popularity: Ranked #55 in Turkey

Yakup is Jacob in Turkish, from a Hebrew name usually read as supplanter or one who follows behind. In the Bible he is a patriarch and the grandson of Abraham, and Islam counts him as a prophet.

The two spellings show how differently one name can land. Jacob ranked 15th in the United States in 2020 and is on every classroom roster; Yakup sits in the Turkish top 60 and is unheard of in America. Same man, same meaning, entirely different experience for the boy carrying it.

Yamac

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Mountainside, slope
• Pronunciation: yah-MAHCH

Yamac is the sloping side of a mountain, and Turkey has a village of the name in the Soke district, sitting high above the valley floor. It is written at home with a c-cedilla, which turns the ending into ch.

Turkish audiences know it best from the crime drama Cukur, where Yamac Kocovali runs a neighborhood he was trying to leave behind. Outdoorsy without being obvious about it, and one of the few nature names here that has not been used on an American baby yet.

Yaman

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Capable, formidable
• Pronunciation: yah-MAHN
• Namesakes: Actor Yaman Okay, coach Fuat Yaman
• Popularity: #1,698 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (97 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 370% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Yaman describes someone impressively good at what he does, with a hint of fierceness underneath: intelligent, efficient, and not to be underestimated. Turkish uses the word as an exclamation of respect.

It runs as a first name and a surname, with actor Yaman Okay on one side and football coach Fuat Yaman on the other. It has held a spot in the Turkish top 100 while staying easy for English speakers, which is a combination this list does not offer often.

Yigit

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Brave young man
• Pronunciation: yee-EET
• Popularity: #13,848 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 7% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Yigit is the Turkish word for a young man of exceptional courage, the one who steps forward, and it carries a warmth that most bravery names lack.

The soft g in the middle makes no sound of its own, so five letters collapse into two syllables, yee-EET. Turkish parents keep it firmly in the top 25, and it serves as a surname too: Ottoman officer Pasha Yigit Bey and former Turkish navy commander Esref Ugur Yigit both carried it. The spelling is the only thing standing between this name and wider use.

Yunus Emre

• Origin: Turkish, Arabic
• Meaning: Dove and friend
• Pronunciation: yoo-NOOS EM-reh
• Namesakes: Yunus Emre, Turkish mystic poet
• Popularity: Ranked #22 in Turkey in 2020

Yunus Emre is a double name honoring one man, and no other name here carries this much of a country’s literature in it. Yunus, the Turkish Jonah, means dove; Emre means friend.

The poet lived from around 1238 to 1320 and was among the first to write in spoken Old Anatolian Turkish instead of the Arabic and Persian that literature was supposed to use. Ordinary people could understand his verses, which is why they were still being sung six hundred years later. UNESCO named 1991 the International Yunus Emre Year, and his face has appeared on Turkish banknotes.

Naming a son for him is roughly what naming an English boy Geoffrey Chaucer would be, except that Turkish parents actually do it, and they keep him in the top 25.

Yusuf

• Origin: Hebrew, via Arabic
• Meaning: God will increase
• Pronunciation: YOO-soof
• Variations: Joseph, Yosef, Youssef
• Popularity: #450 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (698 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 75% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Yusuf held the top spot on Turkey’s boys’ chart in 2020, and it was already the most common newborn boy’s name in the country in 2013 figures, so its run at number one has been a long one.

It is the Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Urdu, and Aramaic form of the Hebrew Yosef, English Joseph, and it belongs to all three Abrahamic scriptures. The Quran gives him an entire chapter. That shared ground is why Muslim, Jewish, and Christian families across the Middle East all use it.

For an American family, Yusuf is the rare Turkish pick that needs no explanation: everyone hears Joseph in it immediately.

Zeki

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Clever, quick-witted
• Pronunciation: zeh-KEE
• Namesakes: Director Zeki Demirkubuz, singer Zeki Muren

Zeki comes from the Arabic dhakiy, a sharp mind, and it is used almost exclusively in Turkey, which makes it one of the most distinctly Turkish names here.

Its two great bearers were opposites: the art-film director Zeki Demirkubuz, and Zeki Muren, the classical singer and composer who became one of the best-known performers in the country. With names like Zion, Zane, and Zeke all running hot in the United States, a two-syllable z name that means clever is well positioned.