Free tool
Write your name in hieroglyphs
Type a name and see it spelled the way an Egyptian scribe would have written it — inside a royal cartouche. Download it as an image or share it.
The hieroglyphic alphabet
Every sign this tool uses
Egyptologists borrow these single-consonant (“uniliteral”) signs to spell foreign names. The codes are from Gardiner’s sign list, the standard reference.
How Egyptians actually wrote names
Hieroglyphs were not an alphabet. The script mixed signs for whole words, signs for groups of sounds and about two dozen signs that each stood for one consonant. When scribes had to write a foreign name — Alexander, Ptolemy, Cleopatra — they spelled it out with those single-consonant signs. That is exactly what this tool does with your name.
Royal names were written inside a cartouche, an oval loop of rope tied at one end. In 1822 Jean-François Champollion cracked the code partly by comparing the cartouches of Ptolemy and Cleopatra on the Rosetta Stone and an obelisk from Philae.
Because Egyptian writing left out most vowels, two people can spell the same name differently, and both are “right”. Treat your cartouche as a phonetic spelling rather than a translation.
Want to see real cartouches? They are carved on temples and tombs across Egypt — start with our guide to Pyramids of Giza.
Questions
Did the ancient Egyptians have an alphabet?
Not exactly. Hieroglyphic writing mixed sound signs and picture signs. About 24 signs each stood for a single consonant, and modern scholars use these "uniliteral" signs as an alphabet to spell foreign names, just as Egyptian scribes did for names like Ptolemy and Cleopatra.
Why are there no vowels in hieroglyphs?
Egyptian writing recorded consonants only, much like Arabic and Hebrew. Readers supplied the vowels. This tool uses the signs Egyptologists conventionally borrow for A, E, I, O and U so that modern names stay readable.
What is a cartouche?
A cartouche is the oval loop drawn around a royal name. It represents a rope tied at one end and was believed to protect the name of the king or queen inside it.
Which direction are hieroglyphs read?
Hieroglyphs could be written left-to-right, right-to-left or in columns. You read towards the faces of the people and animals: if the owl faces left, start reading from the left.
Is this an accurate translation of my name?
It is a phonetic spelling, not a translation. It follows the sound of your name using the single-consonant signs, which is how Egyptians themselves wrote foreign names.