Your Name in 19 Languages: A Guide to Script Jewelry
Most name jewelry is made in one alphabet. We engrave in more than nineteen, including Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Hindi, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Armenian, Amharic, Thai and Telugu, alongside English. We can do that because we are the factory rather than a reseller: the letterforms are drawn and cut in our own workshop in Israel, not ordered in from a catalog of pre-made pendants.
This guide walks through what actually changes from one writing system to another, because a name is not simply swapped from one alphabet to the next. Direction, letter connection, proportion and even word order all shift, and each of those decisions affects how a finished pendant looks on a chain.
Why does the same name look so different in each script?
Three things drive the difference. Direction: some scripts run right to left, which changes where the eye enters the piece. Connection: some scripts join their letters into a single continuous line, which is a gift for jewelry because the pendant holds together structurally. Density: a four-letter English name and the same name in Chinese characters occupy completely different amounts of space, so a design that suits one may need a different width or chain length for the other.
There is also the question of how the name crosses over at all. Some scripts spell a name out phonetically. Others require choosing characters, which means choosing meaning as well as sound. The sections below cover both cases.
How do I write my name in another language?
Hebrew
Hebrew is written right to left and has 22 letters, five of which take a different form at the end of a word. Vowels are usually not written out, so a name is generally rendered with its consonant letters, which is part of why Hebrew names look so compact and balanced as a pendant. Five of the letters, called final forms, drop below the line, which gives a Hebrew name necklace its characteristic rhythm.
Arabic
Arabic also runs right to left, and it is cursive by nature: letters connect to their neighbors, and most letters take a different shape depending on whether they sit at the beginning, middle, or end of a word, or stand alone. That makes Arabic exceptionally well suited to engraved jewelry, because a name arrives as one flowing line rather than a row of separate shapes. The same script is used for Farsi, with a few additional letters.
Chinese
Chinese names are written in characters, and a foreign name is rendered by choosing characters whose sounds approximate it. This is a genuine choice, because those characters also carry meaning, and a good rendering picks a set that sounds close and reads well rather than one that only sounds close. Note also that in Chinese, the surname comes first, before the given name. A name is usually two or three characters, which makes for a short, strongly vertical or horizontal pendant.
Japanese: katakana or kanji?
This is the most useful distinction on the page, so it is worth being precise. Japanese uses three scripts together. Katakana is a phonetic syllabary, and it is the standard, conventional way that foreign names are written in Japan. Angular and clean, it spells your name by sound: each character is a syllable, so "Maria" becomes three katakana characters. If you want your name written the way it would actually appear on a form or a name badge in Japan, katakana is the correct answer.
Kanji are the characters borrowed from Chinese, and each one carries meaning as well as sound. A foreign name can be written in kanji by selecting characters that match the sound, but the result is a creative rendering rather than the standard form, and the characters chosen will carry their own meanings. Japanese given names and surnames are themselves normally written in kanji. Neither option is more correct than the other; katakana is the conventional spelling of a foreign name, and kanji is the more interpretive choice. Tell us which you want, and we will show you both if you are undecided.
Korean
Korean is written in Hangul, an alphabet created deliberately in the fifteenth century under King Sejong and promulgated as a script anyone could learn quickly. It is fully phonetic, and its letters are grouped into square syllable blocks rather than strung out in a line, so a name renders as two or three tidy blocks. That geometry is why Hangul name pendants look so balanced: the script has built-in symmetry.
Russian and other Cyrillic languages
The Russian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters and is phonetic, so names transfer directly by sound. Several letters resemble Latin ones but represent different sounds, which is exactly why it is worth previewing a Cyrillic name rather than assuming the letters you recognize are doing what you expect.
Greek
Greek has 24 letters, and uppercase and lowercase forms can look quite distinct from one another. Names transfer phonetically. The cursive lowercase forms give a soft, rounded script line, while capitals produce something much more architectural, so it is worth deciding which effect you want before you order.
Hindi and Devanagari
Hindi is written in Devanagari, which is an abugida: each consonant carries a built-in vowel sound, and other vowels are marked with signs attached above, below, or beside the consonant. Its most recognizable feature is the horizontal bar running along the top of the line and linking the letters together, which gives a Devanagari name necklace a strong, continuous upper edge. Devanagari is used for several other languages as well, including Marathi and Nepali.
Armenian
The Armenian alphabet was created in 405 CE by Mesrop Mashtots, and the modern alphabet has 39 letters. Its distinctive loops, hooks and vertical strokes make it immediately identifiable, and it has a naturally elegant rhythm on a pendant because so many of its letters share a similar height and curve.
Amharic and the Ge'ez script
Amharic is written in the Ge'ez script, sometimes called fidel. Rather than an alphabet, it is a syllabary: each character represents a consonant plus a vowel, and each base consonant appears in a series of forms, one per vowel, distinguished by small strokes and loops attached to the shape. The characters are broad and upright, which suits bolder engraving and slightly wider pendants.
Thai
Thai has a large set of consonants and vowels, and vowel signs can appear above, below, before or after the consonant they modify. Words are not separated by spaces. Visually it is full of tall ascenders and small circular loops, and those loops are what give Thai script jewelry its distinctive lightness.
Beyond these, we also engrave Telugu and several other scripts. If you do not see yours listed, ask us.
How does the translation work?
Two ways, and both are straightforward.
- Type it in English and we render it. Write the name in Latin letters, choose the target script, and we produce the correct rendering at no extra cost. For Chinese and for Japanese kanji, where characters carry meaning, we will confirm the choice with you before cutting.
- Type it yourself. If you read the script, enter the characters directly and we engrave exactly what you send. This is the right choice when a family spells a name a particular way, or when a name has an established form you already know.
Why preview before you order?
Because engraved jewelry is made to order and cut once. If you are ordering in a script you do not read, seeing the finished letterforms before production is the difference between a gift that is right and one that is nearly right.
Our live name preview shows your name in the actual letterforms we will cut, so you can check length, proportion, and the shape of each character. It is worth taking two minutes over, particularly for connected scripts like Arabic, where a name looks quite different rendered as a single flowing line than it does letter by letter, and for anything where a family spelling might differ from the standard transliteration.
What is it made of, and how long does it take?
Every piece is handmade to order in our workshop in Israel in 3 to 5 business days. Our gold, rose gold and silver finishes are plated over stainless steel, which is what keeps them wearing well day after day; our sterling silver 925 pieces are solid and unplated. Shipping is free to the US and UK, returns stay open for 100 days, and every piece carries a one-year warranty. We hold a 4.9-star rating from more than 5,800 reviews.
Choosing a script as a gift
When you give someone their name in the script of a language they grew up with, or one their family speaks, you are giving something a generic gift cannot match: the specific version of their name, in the letters it belongs in. It works for a grandparent, a new spouse joining a family, a graduate, or a friend who has spent years learning a language and would quietly love to wear it.
A practical tip for gifting: ask for the exact spelling in the target script rather than transliterating from English yourself. Names often have an established form in their own script that a phonetic guess will miss.
Start with the full name jewelry collection, or go straight to a script: Hebrew, Arabic, or Chinese. Then run the name through the live preview before you order.