Nur

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Nur is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Turkish given name1.6M records spelled Nur48 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Syria, Malaysia, India

  Languages: Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Nour, Nür, N'Ur, Nūr, Núr

• English given name300K records spelled Nur34 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Germany, United States, Netherlands

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Nuer, N'Ur, Nur', Nür, Nūr

• Hindi given name277K records spelled Nur14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Malaysia, Türkiye, Singapore

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Nūr, Ñür, Ñùr, Ńüř, Nür

• Malay given name239K records spelled Nur182 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia

  Languages: Malay, Bangla, Indonesian

  Also written Nor, Noor, Nar, নুর, Nuru

• a separate given name155K records spelled Nur5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Türkiye, Malaysia, United States

  Also written Nūr, Nūṛ, Nūr̲, Nûr

• Arabic given name76K records spelled Nur5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Syria, Türkiye, Malaysia, India

  Also written Nûr, Nūr, Nür, N'Ur

• Chinese given name29K records spelled Nur3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Türkiye, Taiwan, India

  Languages: Chinese, Burmese

  Also written N'Ur

• Swahili given name25K records spelled Nur2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, India, Türkiye, United States

  Also written N'Ur

68 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Nur is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Turkish, 1. Aydınlık, ışık, parıltı. 2. Tanrısal bir güç tarafından gönderildiğine inanılan parlaklık. 3. Kur´an-ı Kerim.

  as a word·TDK Kişi Adları Sözlüğü (official Turkish given-name dictionary)

• In Arabic, light; radiance

  as a name·African Muslim Names

• In Arabic, light, illumination. Al-Noor ,4J!, the Light: one of the names of Allah; also the title of the 24th sura of the Qur’an. is! geoVly olglaut! 545 "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth." (surat al-Nur 24:35). Gane GES 5 553 atl Ge aSela a3 "A light and

  as a name·A Dictionary of Muslim Names

• In German, only

  as a word·A Frequency Dictionary of German

• In Polish, loon (any bird of the order Gaviiformes)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 95 years between 1914–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Nur ad-Din al-Bitrujib. 1200ES12th-century Iberian Arab astronomer and Qadi
• Nur Jahanb. 1577AFPadshah Begum of the Mughal Empire (1577-1645)
• Nur Muhammad Tarakib. 1917AF1st General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
• Nur Sürerb. 1954TRTurkish actor (born 1954)
• Aşkın Nur Yengib. 1970TRTurkish singer (born 1970)
• Larab. 1979TRnot in their usual nameTurkish singer (born 1979)
• Nur Fettahoğlub. 1980DETurkish actor (born 1980)
• Daphne Ozb. 1986USnot in their usual nameAmerican writer and television personality
• Nur Tatarb. 1992TRTurkish taekwondo athlete (born 1992)
• Nur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsanib. 1997MYbadminton player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 701 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Nur?

We estimate roughly 4.3 thousand people bear Nur (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Nur have the most bearers?

Nur is most frequently recorded in Malaysia, where it is most often spelled nur.

How common is Nur compared with other names?

In Malaysia, Nur is the 3rd most common given name of 325,158 given names recorded there.

Is Nur a male or female name?

Nur is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.

What does the name Nur mean?

Recorded meaning: light