Ancient Irish alphabet

See your name
in Ogham.

English and common name forms are converted to a recognised Gaeilge equivalent where available. Gaeilge names go straight to Ogham. If no established equivalent is found, the entered name is used.

Type a name. If it has a recognised Gaeilge equivalent, we translate it first and then create the Ogham inscription. Gaeilge names go straight to Ogham.

AARON
How it works

From a name to Ogham.

Enter a name and the tool first checks whether it has a recognised Gaeilge equivalent. If it does, that Irish form is used before the Ogham inscription is created. Gaeilge names go straight to Ogham. The finished inscription is shown vertically and read from bottom to top.

1

Type a name

Enter a first name, surname or short word.

2

We check the Gaeilge form

Recognised English and common name forms are converted to their Gaeilge equivalent where available.

3

See it in Ogham

The letters are drawn along the stem line and spaced evenly, with the inscription read from bottom to top.

If there is no recognised Gaeilge equivalent in the name list, the site uses the name as entered. Modern letters that do not exist in the traditional Ogham alphabet are approximated and the site tells you when that happens.
What is Ogham?

Ireland’s ancient alphabet.

Ogham is an early writing system associated mainly with Ireland and western Britain. It is best known from inscriptions carved on the edges of standing stones, with letters formed from groups of straight strokes placed beside or across a central stem line.

The core alphabet contains 20 letters arranged in four groups, known as aicmí. In a vertical inscription, the text is traditionally read from bottom to top.

The core alphabet

The 20 main letters.

This site uses the standard 20-letter Ogham forms shown in the reference chart: first aicme to the right of the stem, second to the left, third diagonally across the stem, and fourth crossing the stem.