Most Popular Girls' Names in Turkey 2025 (TÜİK) and Their Meanings

Turkey's 2025 list of girls' names can be summed up in one number: 8,739. According to TÜİK, the Turkish Statistical Institute, that is how many baby girls in Turkey were named Alya in 2025, putting the name at number one for the first time. A year earlier Alya stood 16th, with 2,879 babies. In a single year the count more than tripled.

Below you will find the full 2025 top 30 with meanings, origins, Arabic spellings and Abjad values. But first, the real story: a change at the top.

Four years, four different leaders

In the data we have, Zeynep was number one five years running, from 2018 to 2022. Since then the top spot has changed hands every year: Asel in 2023, Defne in 2024, Alya in 2025.

One detail stands out: Alya's 8,739 is higher than the totals of the 2023 and 2024 leaders. So this is not a win by default, with the others simply falling back; far more families actually chose the name. Defne slipped to second with 7,716, a gap of 1,023.

Alya over eight years: quiet stability, then a leap

Alya is not a new name. From 2018 to 2024 it was in the top 30 every year, but always between 16th and 24th place, with 2,506 to 2,991 babies a year. In 2025 it climbed 15 places at once. The data itself does not explain the jump, so we will not guess. What we can say is that a name long "known but never prominent" moved to the head of the list within a year.

The meaning suits the moment: Arabic ʿalyāʾ (علياء) means "loftiness, a high place".

The 30 most popular girls' names in Turkey in 2025

The counts are TÜİK's figures for births registered in 2025. Arabic spellings and Abjad values match the name records on our site; names of Turkish origin are given in phonetic Ottoman spelling.

What changed compared with 2024?

Climbers

• Gökçe rose from 5th to 3rd (4,754 → 7,582). In 2021 it was 28th with 2,197 babies, and its rank has improved every year since.
• Umay went from 11th to 6th (3,343 → 5,644). It first entered the list in 2023, in 30th place.
• İnci moved from 13th to 9th and into the top ten (3,175 → 4,012).
• Ela rose from 27th to 18th, Ada from 29th to 21st, Güneş from 24th to 17th.

Fallers

• Asel, the 2023 leader, dropped from 2nd to 5th (7,337 → 5,855).
• Zümra fell from 6th to 12th and Lina from 9th to 15th.
• Doğa slipped from 17th to 25th, Nehir from 19th to 26th, Masal from 22nd to 29th.

New entries and exits

Six names appear in the top 30 for the first time in the 2018–2025 period: Eflin (straight in at 16th), Ceylin, Arya, İpek, Mira and Sare. Making way were Efnan, Ebrar, Ecrin, Azra, Eslem and Aden. Four of the newcomers (Eflin, Ceylin, Arya, Mira) are modern names whose origin dictionaries do not settle; İpek ("silk") and Sare (Sarah) are not new at all, but rediscovered classics.

The long view: Zeynep and Elif

Zeynep, given to 14,183 babies in 2018, is 4th in 2025 with 6,228. Elif was second in 2018 with 9,893 babies; in 2025 it fell to 11th with 3,713, leaving the top ten for the first time in this period. Both remain much-loved names; what has changed is that parents now spread their choices across more names.

The 2025 list through Abjad eyes

In the Abjad tradition every letter has a number and an element (fire, air, water, earth; some authors use a different classification). Seen this way, the list reveals a few curious points:

• Alya = 111. The letters of علياء: ع 70 + ل 30 + ي 10 + ء 0. Of the total, 100 comes from ʿayn and lām, both earth letters. The spelling without hamza, عليا, gives the same result, since a standalone hamza counts as 0. Sena also gives 111: the same number from entirely different letters.
• Top three, three elements. Judging by the letters that carry most of the value, earth dominates in Alya, fire in Defne and water in Gökçe. The top ten is almost evenly split: 3 earth, 3 water, 2 fire, 2 air.
• The rāʾ effect. Earth dominates in 16 of the 30 names, mostly because of a single letter: ر, worth 200. In Duru, Zümra, Mihra, Miray, Meryem, Arya, Nehir, Mira, İkra and Sare this one letter carries most of the total.
• One letter's difference. Mira (ميرا) is 251, Miray (ميراي) 261: the only difference is the final ي, worth 10.
• The extremes. The highest value belongs to Doğa (1011), because غ alone is worth 1000. The lowest is Ada (6).
• Spelling changes the value. Asya (آسيا) is 72, while Âsiye (آسية), often confused with it, is 76. We give İnci in our site's phonetic spelling إنجي (64); the classical Ottoman spelling اینجو comes to 70.

Quick Q&A: choosing a popular name

Is the number-one name "better"? No. The ranking only shows how many families chose a name. Its meaning and how it fits your family are personal matters.

Is a very popular name a problem? It is a matter of taste. With 8,739 Alyas, the chance of another child with the same name in the classroom rises; some families do not mind, others look for a less common name.

Does the Abjad value say anything on its own? A name's value and element mix offer an interesting first look. But in the Abjad tradition the real question is what picture the name forms together with the mother's and father's names. The same Alya may supply a missing element in one family and reinforce an already dominant one in another.

Before you pick a name from the list

1. Check the meaning and origin in the table; for names marked "disputed", confirm the meaning in a dictionary too.
2. Say it aloud with your surname and with any siblings' names.
3. Decide which Arabic spelling you will use; the Abjad value depends on it.
4. Finally, consider the name together with the mother's and father's names.

This article is for information only. Abjad interpretations rest on tradition and make no definitive judgement or guarantee about any name.

Source: TÜİK, Population Statistics Portal — Most Given Baby Names (nip.tuik.gov.tr). The figures are TÜİK's data on births registered in the year concerned.