Popular baby names in Turkey, 2022

Flag of Turkey
Flag of Turkey

The transcontinental country of Turkey shares land borders with eight other nations: two (Greece and Bulgaria) on the European side and six (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria) on the Asian side.

In 2022, Turkey welcomed 1,035,795 babies — 48.6% were girls, and 51.4% were boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Zeynep and Alparslan.

Here are Turkey’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Zeynep (has ranked either #1 or #2 for girls since 1999)
  2. Asel (entered the top 100 in 2016; entered the top 10 in 2018)
  3. Defne
  4. Zümra
  5. Elif
  6. Asya
  7. Azra
  8. Nehir
  9. Eylül
  10. Ecrin
  11. Elisa
  12. Masal
  13. Meryem
  14. Lina
  15. Ada
  16. Eslem
  17. Ebrar
  18. Ela
  19. Miray
  20. Zehra
  21. Yagmur
  22. Duru
  23. Gökçe (pronounced gok-cheh)
  24. Alya
  25. Günes (pronounced goo-NESH)
  26. Buglem
  27. Efnan (entered the top 100 in 2022)
    • The sudden trendiness of Efnan is likely due to the Turkish drama Aziz (2021-2022), which featured a character named Efnan. If this series ends up airing in the U.S. in Spanish (as other Turkish dramas have recently), we may see Efnan pop up the U.S. data soon as well.
  28. Ikra
  29. Esila
  30. Kumsal
  31. Öykü
  32. Ipek
  33. Arya
  34. Mira
  35. Sare
  36. Hiranur
  37. Nisa
  38. Melisa
  39. Ayse
  40. Aysima
  41. Umay (entered the top 100 in 2020)
  42. Melek
  43. Inci
  44. Eliz (entered the top 100 in 2021)
  45. Ahsen
  46. Yüsra
  47. Beren
  48. Erva
  49. Fatma
  50. Belinay

Boy Names

  1. Alparslan (entered the top 100 in 2016)
  2. Yusuf (has ranked either #1 or #2 for boys since 2002)
  3. Miraç
  4. Göktug
  5. Ömer Asaf
  6. Eymen
  7. Ömer
  8. Aras
  9. Mustafa
  10. Ali Asaf
  11. Kerem
  12. Ali
  13. Çinar
  14. Hamza
  15. Metehan
  16. Ahmet
  17. Poyraz
  18. Muhammed
  19. Mehmet
  20. Muhammed Ali
  21. Yigit
  22. Atlas
  23. Ayaz
  24. Mert
  25. Emir
  26. Umut
  27. Miran
  28. Alperen
  29. Kuzey
  30. Ibrahim
  31. Yunus Emre
  32. Berat
  33. Deniz
  34. Yagiz
  35. Aybars
  36. Ege
  37. Doruk
  38. Eren
  39. Hüseyin
  40. Emirhan
  41. Hasan
  42. Furkan
  43. Enes
  44. Muhammed Alparslan (entered the top 100 in 2022)
  45. Burak
  46. Kaan
  47. Efe
  48. Rüzgar
  49. Muhammed Emin
  50. Abdullah

(Turkey’s baby name data consists of top-100 lists going back to 1980. So my notes above about names entering the top 100 only covers the last 43 years.)

The girls’ top 100 included Mihra (53rd), Neva (55th), Menesa (67th), and Asel Lina (79th).

The boys’ top 100 included Barlas (74th), Uraz (76th), Alp (87th), and Kivanç (96th).

The boy name Ragnar didn’t make Turkey’s top 100, but it did make headlines in Turkey in early 2022. That January, Güven and Sibel Arslan of the province of Diyarbakir welcomed a baby boy. They had agreed to name him Rüzgar (which means “wind” in Turkish), but Güven — a fan of the TV series Vikings — decided at the last minute to register the name Ragnar instead. Luckily, Sibel wasn’t upset about the switch, but she said she’d call the baby Rüzgar regardless.

Finally, here are Turkey’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Turkey (public domain)

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