Entry № 2864 · Turkish origin

Elif Elif — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ eh-LEEF /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Turkish
Meaning
"First letter of the alphabet; slim, tall"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Ancient

A name that means "first letter of the alphabet; slim, tall".

Elif (Turkish) and Alif (Arabic) is the name of the first letter of the Arabic alphabet (ا) — and by extension means "first," "beginning," or (metaphorically) "tall and slim" (because the letter is a single vertical stroke).

Elif is the most popular girl's name in Turkey and is widely used across the Turkic and Arab worlds. In Latin script, the spelling Elif is used in Turkish; Alif in Arabic.

First letter of the alphabet; slim, tall — a Turkish name.

The name in its native script.

ا · Elif
Transliteration
Alif / Elif
Pronunciation
/ eˈlif /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Elif stands.

Elif does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Elifs before her.

Real people
Elif Şafak
Turkish-British novelist. Author of The Forty Rules of Love.
born 1971
In fiction
Elif
Heroine of the Turkish television series Elif.
2014–2019

Names connected to Elif.

The number behind Elif.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Elif reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.