2026 Baby Girl Names in Azerbaijan: Trending Names and Their Meanings

Families choosing a name for a daughter due in 2026, whether in Baku or in Turkey, tend to ask the same thing: which name is this year's favourite? There is no final answer until the year is over. Azerbaijan's Ministry of Justice publishes the top 10 names drawn from birth registrations at the end of each year; the 2025 list arrived in January 2026.

During 2026, however, three partial lists based on the ministry's data have appeared in the press: 1–9 January, January–March, and from New Year to mid-August. We read them here as progress reports: the 2025 closing table is the starting line, and we look at who has pulled ahead in the first months of 2026. What comes out is not a 2026 ranking, just signs of direction.

The starting line: the 2025 top 10

The ministry publishes only the top 10 names and the number of babies. Names appear in their registered Azerbaijani spelling (with the letter ə); we have added the Turkish form next to each.

Three moves shaped the table from 2024 to 2025. Melisa rose from 6th to 1st (1,141 → 1,200 babies). Among names in the top 10 in both years, only two were given to more babies than the year before: Melisa and İnci (926 → 950). Alisa was not in the 2024 list and entered in 9th place in 2025 (946 babies). Mələk (Melek in Turkey, ملك 90) was 10th in 2024 (898 babies) and is absent from the 2025 list. Zeynəb, who handed the top spot to Melisa, was given to 1,129 babies, down from 1,261.

Three progress reports from 2026

The table below sets the three snapshots reported in the press side by side. Each cell shows the rank and number of babies in that period; "=" marks a tie and "—" a name not mentioned in that report.

Four warnings before you read

• These are not full-year figures; the year-end table may look different.
• The 1–9 January snapshot covers nine days: the numbers range from 14 to 25, so a handful of registrations can change the order.
• The August report listed only 8 girls' names; where Alisa and Fatimə stood at that point is unknown.
• Partial counts cannot be compared with year-end totals or added together; what matters is the order within one snapshot.

Five signals from the progress reports

Melisa: in front, but not alone

In 2025 Melisa was given to 71 more babies than second-placed Zeynəb. In the first quarter of 2026 Melisa was second, 7 babies behind Məryəm (291 to 284). In the snapshot up to mid-August Melisa is back in front (512), but only 28 babies ahead of the name in second place.

İnci: the surprise of the partial lists

That second name is İnci. It was 9th in 2024 and 8th in 2025; in the first quarter of 2026 it was 7th (235) and by mid-August 2nd (484). Of Turkish origin, the name means "pearl" and is spelt the same way in Turkey.

Məryəm: leader of the year's opening

First in both 1–9 January and January–March. By mid-August it is 3rd (473), just 1 baby ahead of fourth-placed Aylin (472).

Alisa: will the newcomer hold on?

Absent from the 2024 list and 9th in 2025, Alisa climbed to 6th in the first quarter of 2026 (240). It is not mentioned in the August report, so we do not know what happened next.

Zeynəb and Mələk: stepping back

Zeynəb, number one in 2024 and second in 2025, fell to 8th in the first quarter of 2026 (226) and was the last of the 8 names listed in August (384). Mələk does not appear in any of the three 2026 snapshots.

These signals are not a forecast; they simply help parents who want to factor popularity into their choice. Whether a name is common or rare says nothing about how well it suits your family.

Abjad in brief

Abjad is calculated from Arabic letters, so the spelling difference between the two countries, as in Zeynəb and Zeynep or Məryəm and Meryem, does not change the value; the values are in the last column of the first table. The value changes only if the Arabic spelling changes: Melisa is 151 as ميليسا and 141 without the middle ya (مليسا). Neither spelling counts as superior; what matters is knowing from the start which one the calculation uses.

• İnci, the riser of the interim lists: 74 as إينجي; since it begins with alif, it belongs to the fire group in the classical classification.
• Məryəm and Aylin, 1 baby apart in 3rd and 4th place in August: Məryəm, at 290, has the highest value in the list; Aylin (آيلين) is 101, the same as Nilay (نيلاي).

So which of the two names worth 101 suits your daughter better? The number alone cannot answer that. In the Abjad tradition a name's value is where the analysis begins; the real picture appears when that value is set beside the mother's and father's names. A child's Yıldızname is also worked out from the total of her own name and her mother's name. A trend list gives you candidates; a calculation with your family's names shows how a candidate fits.

Note: The full-year list for 2026 has not been published yet. The 2026 figures in this article are partial-year snapshots, not a final ranking, and the article contains no numerical forecast. Abjad interpretations reflect a traditional perspective and offer no certain result or guarantee.

Source: Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan, newborn name statistics based on birth registrations (top 10 names; announcements of 31 December 2024 for 2024 and January 2026 for 2025). Partial 2026 figures are taken from reports by Modern.az (9 January 2026), Teleqraf (9 April 2026) and Bakuplus/Modern.az (15 August 2026) citing the ministry's data. All figures are taken from Azerbaijani press reports quoting the ministry's data; because the 2024 list was published on 31 December, the last few days of that year may be missing.