OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Turkish Name Generator
Turkish Surnames With Meaning, Plus Modern and Classic Given Names
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How the Turkish Name Generator works
This Turkish name generator makes Turkish names in Turkish spelling with the surnames Turkey created in 1934, Yılmaz the undaunted, Kaya the rock, Demir iron, Öztürk the pure Turk, and the given names of two generations: the Islamic classic stock, Mehmet, Fatma, Ayşe, and the modern nature and Turkic names, Defne, Nehir, Alparslan, Göktuğ. Choose female, male or either and generate up to a hundred.
How the Turkish name generator works
Turkish surnames are younger than the people who first carried them. Until the Surname Law of 1934 Turks had no family names; Atatürk, father of the Turks, was the first name granted under the law, and every family had to choose one within two years. Most chose words with a meaning they liked, which is why Turkish surnames read like a list of virtues and elements: Yılmaz the undaunted, the commonest name in Turkey; Kaya rock; Demir iron; Çelik steel; Şahin falcon; Yıldız star; Yıldırım lightning; Arslan and Aslan lion; Kurt wolf; Doğan hawk; Kılıç sword; Güneş sun; Bulut cloud; Korkmaz fearless; Polat steel. Öztürk and Öz- names, pure Turk, were the nationalist choice; Erdoğan, born a warrior, and -oğlu names, son of, Bayraktaroğlu, kept an older patronymic form. Compounds appear in the second list, Karadeniz Black Sea, Bozkurt grey wolf, Gündoğdu the sun has risen, Sarıkaya yellow rock.
Given names divide by generation and by politics. The classic stock is Islamic and Arabic in Turkish spelling: Mehmet, the Turkish form of Muhammad, Mustafa, Ahmet, Ali, Hüseyin, Hasan, İbrahim, and for women Fatma, Ayşe, Emine, Hatice, Zeynep, the names of the Prophet's family. A village register from 1960 has almost nothing else. The modern stock, since the 1990s, has three strands: nature names, Defne laurel, Nehir river, Yağmur rain, Ada island, Çınar plane tree, Ege Aegean, Poyraz north wind, Kuzey north; Turkic revival names from the steppe and the Seljuks, Alparslan, Göktuğ, Aras, Yiğit brave; and religious names that have come back under the current government, Eymen, Miraç, Ecrin, Nisa. Zeynep and Yusuf are common to both generations and are the most given names in the country.
Turkish spelling is exact and its letters matter: dotless ı and dotted İ are different letters, ş, ç, ğ and ö, ü are all distinct, and Yilmaz or Ozturk are the diaspora spellings, not the Turkish ones. Names here keep the Turkish forms. For the Arabic names that the classic stock derives from, the Arabic page; for the Persian names that supplied Ottoman poetry, the Persian page.
FAQ
Why do Turkish surnames have meanings?
Because they were chosen, not inherited. The 1934 Surname Law made every Turkish family pick a surname within two years, and most picked a word they liked: iron, rock, lion, undaunted. Nearly every Turkish surname is a dictionary word.
What is the difference between Mehmet and Muhammed?
Mehmet is the traditional Turkish form of Muhammad, used for ordinary people out of respect for the Prophet, whose own name was reserved as Muhammed. Both are now given, and Mehmet remains the commonest male name in Turkey.
Are the dotted and dotless i different?
Yes. Turkish has ı, dotless, and i, dotted, with capitals I and İ, and they are different letters with different sounds. Yılmaz, İbrahim and İsmail are spelled with care; Yilmaz and Ibrahim are foreign spellings.
Which names are modern?
Nature names like Defne, Nehir, Yağmur and Ada, Turkic revival names like Alparslan and Göktuğ, and short names like Ela, Mira, Emir and Arda. A Turkish child born after 2010 is unlikely to be Fatma or Hüseyin, and a grandparent is unlikely to be Defne or Aras.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. They are combinations of ordinary names and cannot be owned. Yılmaz and Kaya are carried by hundreds of thousands, so a common combination will coincide with real people; a name that will be attached to something public deserves a quick search.
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