FemaleOrigin: Persian

Nilüfer: Meaning, Origin and Pronunciation

Nilüfer is a girl’s name of Persian origin. It means “water lily, lotus”.

Say it: nee-lew-fer

About the name Nilüfer

Meaning: water lily, lotus
Origin: Persian; From Persian nīlūfar.
Gender: Female
Pronunciation: nee-lew-fer

Well-known bearer

Nilüfer Hatun, wife of the Ottoman ruler Orhan Gazi and mother of Murad I, gave her name to the Nilüfer river and district in Bursa.

How to pronounce Nilüfer

Turkish spelling is phonetic: every letter is pronounced, and each letter always has the same sound. Our respellingnee-lew-fer is an approximation for English speakers. Turkish stresses syllables much more evenly than English, so avoid hitting one syllable hard. Tap the letters below for tips.

Nilüfer

Letters English doesn’t haveFamiliar letters with a Turkish twist

ü
ü is a rounded “ee”
Say “ee” and round your lips tightly: the vowel of German “über” or French “tu”. Our respelling writes it “ew”.
Hear ü in the alphabet tool →
r
r is tapped
Turkish r is a light tap of the tongue, like the tt in American “better”; at the end of a word it often sounds breathy.
Hear r in the alphabet tool →

Practice the sounds in the Turkish alphabet tool or readhow to pronounce i, dotless ı and soft g.

Nilüfer with Turkish suffixes

Turkish adds case endings where English uses prepositions. With a personal name the ending is separated by anapostrophe (Nilüfer'e, Nilüfer'in), but it is still pronounced as one word. The apostrophe only marks where the name ends; the suffix itself follows the usual rules.

The last vowel of Nilüfer is e, a front unrounded vowel. So two-way suffixes take e and four-way suffixes takei (vowel harmony):Nilüfer'de, Nilüfer'i.

Because Nilüfer ends in a consonant, vowel-initial endings attach directly (Nilüfer'i, Nilüfer'e) with no buffer letter.

Case forms of Nilüfer
Case	Form	Example
Accusative (object)	Nilüfer'i	Nilüfer'i tanıyor musun? Do you know Nilüfer?
Dative (to)	Nilüfer'e	Nilüfer'e bir mesaj yazdım. I wrote a message to Nilüfer.
Locative (at / with)	Nilüfer'de	Anahtarlar Nilüfer'de. Nilüfer has the keys. (lit. The keys are at Nilüfer.)
Ablative (from)	Nilüfer'den	Nilüfer'den bir hediye aldım. I got a present from Nilüfer.
Genitive (’s)	Nilüfer'in	Bu Nilüfer'in çantası. This is Nilüfer’s bag.
Instrumental (with)	Nilüfer'le	Dün Nilüfer'le konuştum. I talked with Nilüfer yesterday.

Forms are generated by TurkLogic’s tested grammar engine. See every case explained in theTurkish noun cases guide, or check the harmony of any word in thevowel harmony calculator.

More female names of Persian origin

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Nilüfer mean?

Nilüfer is a Turkish girl’s name meaning “water lily, lotus”. Its origin is Persian. From Persian nīlūfar.

How do you pronounce Nilüfer?

Say it roughly as “nee-lew-fer”, keeping every vowel short and clear. Say “ee” and round your lips tightly: the vowel of German “über” or French “tu”. Our respelling writes it “ew”.

How do you add suffixes to Nilüfer in Turkish?

Because Nilüfer is a proper name, case endings go after an apostrophe and follow vowel harmony: Nilüfer'e (to Nilüfer), Nilüfer'in (Nilüfer’s), Nilüfer'de (at Nilüfer’s) and Nilüfer'le (with Nilüfer).