How to write your name in runes
Do not start with letters. Start with sound. Runes were writing for languages spoken almost two thousand years ago. So your name cannot always simply be swapped over letter by letter. Instead it can be assembled by ear.
How does it sound? Which sounds do you hear in it? For some there will be an exact rune. For others, the nearest one. And some sounds are simply not in the Elder Futhark.
That is exactly why two honest spellings of the same modern name can look a little different.
Runes wrote down sounds
The Elder Futhark has 24 runes. Its full row survives, among other places, on the Kylver stone, carved around the year 400. Every rune carried a sound. Fehu — f. Raidho — r. Tiwaz — t. Berkana — b. But between the ancient language and yours there is a difference.
There is no separate rune for the modern x, for instance — it can be given as k + s. c can sound like k or like s. And the ng sound, as in ring, does have a rune of its own: Ingwaz. So the rule is simple: do not look at how the name is spelled. Listen to how it sounds.
Try to build your own name
Touch the sounds below and put your version together. Do not worry if the choice is not always obvious. For modern names there is no single ancient dictionary of «right answers». And part of the beauty is in that.
You are not translating a name. You are asking how it might have sounded in another script.
And can a name be written in «Viking runes»?
You can — but that is another question. The Vikings mostly used the Younger Futhark of 16 runes, not the Elder Futhark of 24 signs shown here. And they wrote in Old Norse, not in modern Ukrainian or English. So when a generator shows what Viktor, Maria or I love you look like «in the Viking language», it is usually not a translation into Old Norse. It is a modern word written in old signs.
And that is entirely fine — as long as we honestly call it what it is.
The row, sound by sound
Fehu «f» Uruz «u» Thurisaz «th» Ansuz «a» Raidho «r» Kenaz «k» Gebo «g» Wunjo «w» Hagalaz «h» Nauthiz «n» Isa «i» Jera «j/y» Eihwaz «ei» Perthro «p» Algiz «z» Sowilo «s» Tiwaz «t» Berkano «b» Ehwaz «e» Mannaz «m» Laguz «l» Ingwaz «ng» Dagaz «d» Othala «o»
Build it yourself
Tap a sound to add it. The choices are yours, and that is the point.
And what do the runes themselves mean?
Here another story begins. Runes were not only letters. Each had a name — Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz — and the old rune poems kept the images tied to those names. Fehu speaks of wealth.
- Isa of ice.
- Sowilo of the sun.
- Raidho of the road.
So a name written in runes can simply be read as sounds. Or you can then look at each sign on its own and see what old story it carries.
The Elder Futhark translator What runes did the Vikings use?