Babayev or Babaev (Azerbaijani: Babayev, Russian: Баба́ев, Turkmen: Babaýew, Ukrainian: Баба́єв) is a Russian, Ukrainian, Turkmen, Uzbek and Azerbaijani masculine surname that is slavicised from Turkic languages; its feminine form is Babayeva or Babaeva. The word babay (бабай) means "grandfather" or "old man" in Tatar and Bashkir.^[1] Alternatively, it comes from Arabic word "bab", which means "door". There was a name "Babullah" which meant "doorway of God" or "doorway to heaven". It was very popular among Turkic nations before Soviet times. Grandchildren of "Babs" were sometimes given "Babayev" as a surname. It was initially "Babov", but later it became "Babayev" due to the influence of Russian phonetics.^[2] The surname may refer to:

• Alaviyya Babayeva (1921–2014), Azerbaijani prose-writer, translator of contemporary Russian literature, and publicist
• Aleksandr Babayev (1923–1985), flying ace
• Arif Babayev, Azerbaijani film director
• Artour "Arteezy" Babaev (1996–present), Uzbek-Canadian professional Dota 2 player
• Chingiz Babayev (1964–1995) Azerbaijani officer
• Eli Babayev, Israeli football player
• Etibar Babayev (born 1950) Azerbaijani journalist,
• Farid Babayev (died 2007), Russian politician
• Firuddin Babayev (1929—1987), Azerbaijani scientist
• Heydar Babayev (born 1957), Azerbaijani politician
• Kasymguly Babaýew (born 1966), Turkmen politician
• Mirza Babayev (1913–2003), Azerbaijani movie actor and singer
• Nazim Babayev (born 1997), Azerbaijani track and field athlete
• Oleh Babayev (1965–2014), Ukrainian politician
• Rafig Babayev (1937–1994), Azerbaijani jazz composer and pianist
• Sabina Babayeva (born 1979), Azerbaijani singer
• Sukhan Babayev (1910–1995), First Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan in 1951–1958
• Vladlen Babayev (born 1996), Russian football player
• Volodymyr Babayev (born 1952), Ukrainian scholar and politician

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