FemaleOrigin: Arabic

Şerife: Meaning, Origin and Pronunciation

Şerife is a girl’s name of Arabic origin. It means “noble, honourable”.

Say it: sheh-ree-feh

About the name Şerife

Meaning: noble, honourable
Origin: Arabic; Feminine of Arabic sharīf.
Gender: Female
Pronunciation: sheh-ree-feh

How to pronounce Şerife

Turkish spelling is phonetic: every letter is pronounced, and each letter always has the same sound. Our respellingsheh-ree-feh 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.

Şerife

Letters English doesn’t haveFamiliar letters with a Turkish twist

ş
ş sounds like “sh”
ş is the sh of “ship”: Ayşe = “eye-sheh”.
Hear ş in the alphabet tool →
e
Final e is pronounced
A final e is never silent in Turkish: it is a short “eh”, so the name has one more syllable than an English reader might expect.
Hear e 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.

Şerife with Turkish suffixes

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

Because Şerife ends in a vowel, a buffer letter keeps two vowels apart:y in Şerife'yi, Şerife'ye and Şerife'yle, and n in the genitive Şerife'nin.

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

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Şerife mean?

Şerife is a Turkish girl’s name meaning “noble, honourable”. Its origin is Arabic. Feminine of Arabic sharīf.

How do you pronounce Şerife?

Say it roughly as “sheh-ree-feh”, keeping every vowel short and clear. ş is the sh of “ship”: Ayşe = “eye-sheh”.

How do you add suffixes to Şerife in Turkish?

Because Şerife is a proper name, case endings go after an apostrophe and follow vowel harmony: Şerife'ye (to Şerife), Şerife'nin (Şerife’s), Şerife'de (at Şerife’s) and Şerife'yle (with Şerife).