FemaleOrigin: Turkish / Old Turkic

Özlem: Meaning, Origin and Pronunciation

Özlem is a girl’s name of Turkish origin. It means “longing, yearning”.

Say it: urz-lem

About the name Özlem

Meaning: longing, yearning
Origin: Turkish / Old Turkic; From özlemek “to miss, to long for”.
Gender: Female
Pronunciation: urz-lem

How to pronounce Özlem

Turkish spelling is phonetic: every letter is pronounced, and each letter always has the same sound. Our respellingurz-lem 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.

Özlem

Letters English doesn’t haveFamiliar letters with a Turkish twist

ö
ö is a rounded “e”
Say “eh” and round your lips: the vowel of German “schön”. Our respelling writes it “ur” as in British “fur”, without the r.
Hear ö in the alphabet tool →

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

Özlem with Turkish suffixes

Turkish adds case endings where English uses prepositions. With a personal name the ending is separated by anapostrophe (Özlem'e, Özlem'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 Özlem is e, a front unrounded vowel. So two-way suffixes take e and four-way suffixes takei (vowel harmony):Özlem'de, Özlem'i.

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Özlem mean?

Özlem is a Turkish girl’s name meaning “longing, yearning”. Its origin is Turkish / Old Turkic. From özlemek “to miss, to long for”.

How do you pronounce Özlem?

Say it roughly as “urz-lem”, keeping every vowel short and clear. Say “eh” and round your lips: the vowel of German “schön”. Our respelling writes it “ur” as in British “fur”, without the r.

How do you add suffixes to Özlem in Turkish?

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