Here are some popular boys’ names:
Ali
Ahmed/Ahmet
Mehmet – very popular!
Ibrahim, and sometimes ‘Ibo’ for short
Murat
Koray
Cem. When you talk to someone with this name, you call them ‘Jem’, because the letter ‘c’ is said like a ‘j’ in Turkish.
Some popular girls’ names are:
Yasemin
Aysun, which means ‘beautiful as the moon’ in Turkish
Mira
Yazmira
Ceren
Like you and me, Turkish people have a first name and a second name. A first name in Turkish is called ‘ad’ and the second name, or surname, is ‘soyadı’.
So, for example – a boy might be called Mehmet Ozturk. His ‘ad’ would be Mehmet, and his ‘soyadı’ would be Ozturk.
When a girl marries a boy, she changes her surname, or ‘soyadı’ to be the same as his, just like most men and women in the US.
Online Turkish lessons for kids: dinolingo.com
