Kurdish names and what they mean: girl and boy names

Ask a Kurdish family why they chose their child’s name, and the answer is often a single word: hope, rain, a star, a mountain. Many Kurdish names are simply everyday words from nature and from feelings. That makes them a friendly way into the language, because every name you learn is also a word you can use.

This guide groups Kurdish names for girls, for boys and for both, with what each one means. The tables show the everyday word in Kurmancî (Northern Kurdish, written in Latin letters) and in Soranî (Central Kurdish, written in an Arabic-based script). Every word in the tables comes from the ZimanGo lessons.

Names that are everyday words

In Kurmancî, a name is often exactly the word, just with a capital letter. The word hêvî means “hope”, and Hêvî is a girl’s name. Parents who choose it give their daughter a wish as well as a name.

Soranî sometimes uses a different word for the same idea, and that word can become a name too. The Soranî word for hope is هیوا hîwa, and Hîwa is usually a boy’s name. So two children whose names both mean “hope” can be called quite different things, depending on the dialect their family speaks. Our guide to Kurmancî vs Soranî shows more of these differences.

Whether a name is for girls or for boys is a matter of custom, and custom can change from one region or family to the next. The groups below follow published Kurdish name lists, and a few names appear in more than one group.

Kurdish girl names

Each of these girls’ names is also an ordinary Kurdish word. The Soranî column gives the same word in Soranî, where it is not always used as a name.

Berfîn is the Kurdish name of the snowdrop, a small white flower of late winter and early spring. Listen to the start of the name and you will hear berf, the Kurmancî word for snow.

Rojîn grows out of roj, which means both “sun” and “day” in Kurmancî. The name is often explained as “like the sun”.

Gul and the longer Gulistan are built on a word for flower. The Kurmancî lessons teach kulîlk for “flower”. In Soranî, though, the everyday word is گوڵ gul, which sounds very close to the start of these names.

Kurdish boy names

Şêr شێر Lion

Şêr is the Kurdish word for lion, in Kurmancî and in Soranî alike. It is found as a boy’s name, and it also sits inside longer boys’ names such as Şêrko. If you have opened ZimanGo, you have already met a lion: it is our mascot.

Many other boys’ names are everyday words too, from mountains and fire to a calm mind:

Aram comes straight from aram, “calm”. It is also the name in the example sentences at the end of this guide. Armenian has a name Aram as well, with a separate history.

Azad means “free”. You can hear the same word inside azadî, the Kurmancî word for freedom. In Soranî, freedom is ئازادی.

And remember Hîwa, the Soranî word for hope? It belongs in this group too: Hîwa is mostly given to boys, while the Kurmancî Hêvî is usually given to girls.

Names for girls and boys

Some names are given to both daughters and sons. Three of them are also everyday words:

Baran shows how custom varies: some families give it to sons, others to daughters. The same goes for Aştî and Jiyan.

Newroz, the Kurdish new year at the start of spring, is a name for girls and boys too. Its name means “new day”: compare the Kurmancî words nû (new) and roj (day). Our guide to Newroz explains the festival.

Names from stories

Some names come from stories that Kurds have told for centuries. The most famous pair is Mem and Zîn, the lovers of Mem û Zîn, the long love poem that Ehmedê Xanî completed in 1692. Mem is a boy’s name and Zîn a girl’s name, and both are still given to children today.

Another is Kawa, the blacksmith of the Newroz legend, who stood up to a cruel king. The legend is retold every spring at Newroz, and Kawa is a boy’s name.

Our tour of Kurdish literature tells the story of Mem and Zîn in more detail.

Saying a name in Kurdish

Once you have a name, you will want to say it. Kurmancî puts the name between Navê min (my name) and e (is). Soranî adds “my” and “is” as endings.

Kurmancî says e after a name that ends in a consonant, like Aram or Soran. After a vowel it becomes ye, so a girl called Hêvî or a boy called Çiya ends the sentence with ye. Our guide to introducing yourself in Kurdish walks you through it step by step.

Whatever name you carry or choose, it is a small piece of Kurdish you can share every time you introduce yourself.