MaleOrigin: Arabic

Rauf: Meaning, Origin and Pronunciation

Rauf is a boy’s name of Arabic origin. It means “compassionate, merciful”.

Say it: rah-oof

About the name Rauf

Meaning: compassionate, merciful
Origin: Arabic; From Arabic raʾūf.
Gender: Male
Pronunciation: rah-oof

How to pronounce Rauf

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

Rauf

Letters English doesn’t haveFamiliar letters with a Turkish twist

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.

Rauf with Turkish suffixes

Turkish adds case endings where English uses prepositions. With a personal name the ending is separated by anapostrophe (Rauf'a, Rauf'un), 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 Rauf is u, a back rounded vowel. So two-way suffixes take a and four-way suffixes takeu (vowel harmony):Rauf'ta, Rauf'u.

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

The final consonant is voiceless (one of the “Fıstıkçı Şahap” letters f, s, t, k, ç, ş, h, p), so the d of the locative and ablative endingshardens to t:-ta and -tan: Rauf'ta, Rauf'tan.

Case forms of Rauf
Case	Form	Example
Accusative (object)	Rauf'u	Rauf'u tanıyor musun? Do you know Rauf?
Dative (to)	Rauf'a	Rauf'a bir mesaj yazdım. I wrote a message to Rauf.
Locative (at / with)	Rauf'ta	Anahtarlar Rauf'ta. Rauf has the keys. (lit. The keys are at Rauf.)
Ablative (from)	Rauf'tan	Rauf'tan bir hediye aldım. I got a present from Rauf.
Genitive (’s)	Rauf'un	Bu Rauf'un çantası. This is Rauf’s bag.
Instrumental (with)	Rauf'la	Dün Rauf'la konuştum. I talked with Rauf 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 male names of Arabic origin

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Rauf mean?

Rauf is a Turkish boy’s name meaning “compassionate, merciful”. Its origin is Arabic. From Arabic raʾūf.

How do you pronounce Rauf?

Say it roughly as “rah-oof”, keeping every vowel short and clear. 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.

How do you add suffixes to Rauf in Turkish?

Because Rauf is a proper name, case endings go after an apostrophe and follow vowel harmony: Rauf'a (to Rauf), Rauf'un (Rauf’s), Rauf'ta (at Rauf’s) and Rauf'la (with Rauf).