Your name in several scripts
Tengwar in two modes, and the Cirth the Dwarves cut for stone. Everything is computed in the browser — nothing you type leaves your device. And every sign shows its working: which letter produced it, what it is called, and where the mode reaches its limit.
Write a name
From name to signs
Sign by sign
Which letters decided each sign. A letter that comes later can still change the choice — the mode looks ahead.
Three examples
- Sophie
- Olivia
- Matthew
General use, the mode Tolkien used for English — the same convention as the name signs on this encyclopedia’s entries.
The signs and their letters
Measured from the mode itself, not compiled by hand: each letter was transcribed, and what came out as a single sign stands here. The names are Tolkien’s own, from the table in Appendix E.
- b · mbumbar
- c · k · q · x · kw · nk · ququessë
- d · ndando
- f · phformen
- g · ngungwë
- hhyarmen
- janca
- l · lllambë
- mmalta
- n · nnnúmen
- pparma
- rórë
- s · sssilmë
- ttinco
- vampa
- wvala
- yanna
- zessë
- chhwesta
- shharma
- ththúlë
- ghunquë
- whhwesta sindarinwa
The vowel signs
Vowels are not letters of their own here: they are marks set above a consonant. Appendix E says which way they lean — “in those such as Sindarin, in which most words ended in a consonant, it was placed above the following consonant”. General use follows that: type “so” and the o sits on the carrier, add a p and it moves onto the p.
- athree dots above
- eacute above
- ia dot above
- oright curl above
- uleft curl above
A long vowel does not get a mark of its own: it is set on the “long carrier”, which Appendix E describes as a form like an undotted j.
The runes and their letters
The tool also writes in Cirth — the runes of the Angerthas Moria, the mode used in the Book of Mazarbul. This table comes from the same transcription the name above uses, so the two cannot drift apart. A certh often carries more than one letter.
- pCerth 1
- bCerth 2
- fCerth 3
- vCerth 4
- mCerth 6
- mbCerth 7
- tCerth 8
- dCerth 9
- thCerth 10
- dhCerth 11
- rCerth 12
- chCerth 13
- jCerth 14
- shCerth 15
- zCerth 17
- kCerth 18
- gCerth 19
- khCerth 20
- ghCerth 21
- nCerth 22
- lCerth 31
- ndCerth 33
- hCerth 34
- ngCerth 37
- iCerth 39
- yCerth 40
- uCerth 42
- wCerth 44
- eCerth 46
- aCerth 48
- oCerth 50
- sCerth 54
- psCerth 57
- tsCerth 58
What this tool does not do
- It does not translate
- A name is written by its sound. Turning it into Sindarin or Quenya needs a meaning, and a meaning needs a source — that is a question for the entries, not for a script.
- No mode of Beleriand
- The inscription on the West-gate of Moria is written in it, and it is the mode people ask for most. Our transcriber cannot do it reliably — it renders m as vala and n as órë, which are w and r. We would rather not offer a mode than offer a wrong one. About the gate.
- Not the Ring-inscription
- It is Tolkien’s own calligraphy, in a mode of its own, and this encyclopedia does not reproduce his drawings. Typing its words here will get you a note, not a line of script.
- Runes: Angerthas Moria only
- The Cirth are the Dwarves’ script, and the values we use are the Moria column of the table — the one Tolkien wrote Balin’s tomb in. The older Angerthas reassigned several of the commonest letters; mixing the columns produces plausible, wrong runes. About Balin.
The scripts themselves
- Tengwar — the older of the two Eldarin writing systems, and the one meant to be written; 67 names in this register are set in it
- Cirth — cut for stone and wood; the 33 dwarf names of this register carry their runes
- Shire calendar — the other tool that shows its rule
Typeface: Alcarin Tengwar by Toshi Omagari (SIL OFL 1.1). Transcription engine: tengwarjs by Kris Kowal (MIT). The rune shapes follow a comparison table by Axuan (CC BY-SA 4.0) — a downloaded sheet carries these notices with it.