Thoughts on the following Turkish names:

[user1470907786]

Hi there

Hoping for some thoughts on the following boy and girl names (mainly how you think they are pronounced upon reading them and how they sound to a non-turkish ear)?

We have lived in UK our entire lives and are from a Turkish background and have a son with a Turkish name. Would greatly appreciate any feedback! I like names with e’s and r’s as you can probably tell :-)

Boy names:

Reyan / Reyyan
Evren
Kerem
Reis

Girl names:

Meryem
Serenay
Esra
Serin
Dilara

Thank you! 🙏🏻

Reis and Serin are both very pleasant and memorable.

Reyan Reyyan my phone autocorrects to Ryan and you might get people making the same mistake

I like Kerem mainly because I used to work with a Kerem and he was the loveliest person!

Girls I really like Meryem or Serin

Thank you so much!

I do love the name Ryan which is why I included Reyan as it’s the closest I can get to it :-)

Open to anymore feedback and thoughts!

I'm not Turkish, and without an obvious prompt would guess anglicised pronunciation

Boy names:
Reyan / Reyyan - RAY-un. Too close to Rayon?
Evren - EV-run,too close to Evelyn and Everly?
Kerem - KERRum, looks like a girl's name
Reis - Rice, Rees?, too close to Reiss?

Girl names:
Meryem - MERRy-em
Serenay - SERRunay
Esra - ESS-ra, too close to Ezra?
Serin - SERRin, too close to Sarin
Dilara -Dill-AR-a, sounds pharmaceutical

None of them are bad, but I'm more familiar with the Arabic spellings of some.

Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts!

We don’t mind the names sounding like other non-turkish names :-) would you mind sharing which ones sound the nicest to your ear not counting that they sound similar to other names?

I love all of these names.

Reyan and Serin are my favourites. Both lovely.

I like Kerem and Serin best.

Evren, Kerem, Serin and Dilara are unusual, roll off the tongue well for a non Turkish speaker like myself, sound lovely and more Turkish to me than the others which could also be Jewish or Arabic/Persian/South Asian. The hardest to pronounce from all those is Reyyan and Reis as they’ll be called Ryan and Reece with no reference to their heritage.

I like them all other than Meryem - it's quite old fashioned I feel, Kerem and Esra are my favourites from your list.

I like all of your girls names.

Some other attractive Turkish names:

Kemal
Murat
Aslan
Dilan
Fatih - cute if he is chubby.
Atlas
Ender

Alara
Miray
Harika
Zahra
Hazal
Sofya
Arzu

Ah thanks for all your thoughts!

One potential issue we have with Kerem:
could be likened to “Kermit” the frog or sounds too much like “cream/créme”?

According to DH!

Am I overthinking?!

Interesting you say this as the names you mention are in fact from Turkish origin whereas some of them, eg Meryem is the Turkish variant of the Arabic Maryam!

It’s so helpful to get these opinions and reactions to the names.

Reyan / Reyyan - Ray-an - not keen on Ray for short (names tend to get shortened in secondary if not before)
Evren - love this
Kerem - sounds a bit feminine / similar to Karen
Reis - Rays - I quite like it - could get confused with Rhys

Girl names:
Meryem - Merry-em - nice but could get confused with Maryam
Serenay - sounds like serenade
Esra - too much like the boys name Ezra so sounds masculine
Serin - love love this!
Dilara - not keen on the Dil part - maybe because Dil- words are often negative (Dilapidated, delirious etc)

I would pick Evren and Serin - love both!

@user1470907786 , I live somewhere multicultural and Rayyan/Rayan and Maryam are popular names. There are all sorts of names, so I'd probably ask how they say their name.

Is the surname Turkish?

Boy names:
Reyan / Reyyan - not a fan of Ray names
Evren - like
Kerem - /ok
Reis - assume pronounced like Rhys. Like

Girl names:
Meryem - not a fan, assume it is the same as Miriam
Serenay - cute
Esra - like
Serin - sounds like a poison gas
Dilara - like, similar to delilah

What about Tarik for a boy.

I like Dilara and Serenay, very unusual and pretty I've never heard them before.

I like all your boys names. Reis or Reyan would probably be my favourites.

Girls I like Serenay/Serin. Not sure about Esra as I think of Ezra which is typically more of a male name, I do like the name though.

I know a couple and the dad is Turkish, they live in Wales and have a little boy Emre which I have always liked.

Leyla could be a girl possibility.

My favourites are Kerem and Serin.

Reis is pronounced like Rhys / Reece. So I guess it’s just the equivalent of them :-)

Thanks all for the feedback, it looks like Serin and Serenay are quite popular, could I perhaps get away with Serenay and nickname Serin or would that be pushing it? Haha

I do like Tarik but it would sound to harsh with the surname which has 2 k’s in it already :-)

Eeeshk, which poison gas sounds like Serin?

Yes Leyla is very pretty but super common in UK for Turkish girls my age so it doesn’t work for me as I know too many Leyla’s :-)

I think Serin is a beautiful name. Reyan for a boy.

what about Deniz?