Azerbaijan

Nakhichevan Republic

Capital : Baku

This is a Muslim republic bordering on Turkey and Iraq. There has been a great deal of conflict with neighbouring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh which is landlocked by Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani Names

There have been three official alphabets during the C20th, Arabic until 1929, Latin 1929-1939, Cyrillic 1939-1991 and Latin again from 1991 on. Naming practices were strongly influenced by Islam before 1920 and by Russian in the Soviet period of 1920-1991. Russian became the official language and was spoken in many families. New names were formed from vocabulary words. Azerbaijani was made the country's official language again in 1978 by General Secretary (later President) Heydar Aliyev. In recent years, people have returned to their Azerbaijani and Turkic origins for names.

Male

Adil	Akhmad	Aligulu	Alihusein	Alireza	Allahverdi
Amikishi	Anvar	Araz	Arif	Avtandil	Aydin
Aykhan	Azad	Bakhtiar	Bakhtiyar	Donmaz	Ebulfez
Elkhan	Elman	Emin	Eshgin	Etibar	Faig
Faik	Fakhretdin	Farid	Faukhraddin	Fazail	Fikrin
Firuz	Fuad	Gamar	Gudrat	Hajy	Haqverdi
Heydar	Ilham	Ilkin	Imamverdi	Ingilab	Iskander
Jafar	Kerrar	Khachatur	Khadzhi	Khuraman	Kombayn
Majid	Majnun	Makhmud	Malik	Malumat	Mayis
Mehpare	Mubarak	Mubariz	Namig	Namik	Narkom
Natig	Natik	Negar	Oktyabr	Oqtay	Osman
Panak	Qabil	Qorkhmaz	Rafig	Rafik	Ramiz
Rashid	Raykom	Rezagulu	Saadat	Sabir	Sabutai
Samad	Samir	Sardar	Sayad	Seljan	Shahverdi
Shaig	Shaik	Slavik	Sonmaz	Stasik	Sultan
Tablighat	Tabrik	Tanriverdi	Tariyel	Tashkilat	Telman
Tofig	Tofik	Traktor	Tural	Turan	Uzeyir
Vladik	Vladislav	Vugar	Yashar	Yunus	Zakir
Zulfugar

Female

Adila	Aida	Almas	Amalia	Anabaji	Atabala
Aybeniz	Aydan	Aygyun	Aynur	Aysel	Ayshan
Aytaj	Ayten	Azade	Banu	Basti	Beyim
Bibikhanim	Dinara	Durra	Elina	Ellada	Elmira
Elvira	Elza	Esmira	Farida	Fidan	Guiz
Guizbas	Guizgayit	Guiztamam	Guizyetar	Gulnar	Gulnara
Gyular	Gyuli	Gyulnara	Gyultakin	Gyulush	Gyulya
Gyunay	Gyunduz	Gyunel	Ilhama	Irada	Jala
Jamila	Kamilla	Khanum	Khavar	Kifayat	Kurshid
Laman	Leila	Leyla	Leyli	Matanat	Mira
Miri	Mirish	Mirvari	Nanaguiz	Nara	Narmin
Narmina	Narmish	Natiga	Nazrin	Ophelia	Rafiga
Ramiza	Rena	Rugiyya	Rukhsara	Sabina	Samira
Selma	Semra	Sevda	Sevil	Solmaz	Tamam
Tamara	Tamilla	Tinatin	Yetar	Zemfira

Surnames

Official family names began to be adopted during the 1920s although some families had used inherited surnames before this. They were often formed by taking the father's name and adding a traditional Russian suffix such as 'yev/yeva' or 'ov/ova'. Traditional Azerbaijani suffixes such as '-zade' (Persian for 'born of') and '-li' or '-lu' (Turkic for 'with' or 'belonging to') became less common. Some Iranian Azerbaijanis used suffixes such as '-pour' or '-zadeh' meaning 'born of' with their father's name but it was more usual for them to use the name of the city they lived in or their occupation.

Abbasova	Abilov	Agamaliyev	Ahundov	Akhmedov	Aliyev
Alizade	Amirov	Asadov	Ashurbeyli	Askerzade	Attar
Aydayev	Azad	Babaev	Bagabzade	Bego	Belenki
Beybukov	Chorakchi	Damirchi	Dzhafarov	Efendiyev	Elcibey
Faturachi	Gambar	Garibova	Guliyev	Hajibeyov	Hajiev
Hajiyev	Hamidov	Huseinov	Huseynli	Ipakchi	Isfahani
Izmailov	Jabbarli	Jalaloglu	Kaffash	Khanli	Khassanov
Koprulu	Mamedov	Mammadov	Melifov	Meshadi	Mustafayev
Natavan	Niyazi	Nizami	Oguz	Omid	Pashazade
Pashkevitch	Roshan	Rustamhanli	Rustaveli	Sayadov	Shakhsevev
Sharifov	Shirazi	Suleymanov	Tabrizi	Taghiyeva	Tagiyev
Tehrani	Vurgun	Yunosova	Yunusov

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This collection of names compiled by Kate Monk. Copyright January 1997, Kate Monk. Last updated February, 98. Copies may be made for personal use only.