Kemal Taskin and seven others had asked the European court of human rights to intervene after the Turkish courts rejected their request as some of the letters in the new names do not exist in the Turkish alphabet.

Taskin wanted to change his name from Kemal to Dilxwaz, which means "the cherished one" in Kurdish. The other proposed names included Xosewist ("the noble one") and Berxwedan ("resistance").

Their request was turned down by Turkish courts who argued that the letters q, w and x do not exist in the 29-letter Turkish alphabet.

But the European court said there was "nothing to suggest that the Turkish authorities would have reacted differently if ... the request was made by non-Kurdish individuals."

The judges rejected the plaintiffs' appeal that the ruling infringed on their personal life and was discriminatory.

The Turkish government plans to expand Kurdish freedoms in return for ending a deadly 25-year insurgency by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.