Write your name in Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Ancient Egyptian writing was very complex and quite different from the English alphabet. There were more

than 500 commonly-used hieroglyphs to learn, although you won’t have to learn that many to be able to write

your name!

Sometimes, instead of spelling out words, one sign was used to represent a whole word. These signs are

called ideograms. We still use ideograms in English, like we do when we write “I ❤ you.” The ❤ is an

ideogram that stands for the word “love.”

The ankh, shown here, could mean “life”.

Some hieroglyphs tell you what kind of word the other hieroglyphs are spelling out. For example, after the

name of a woman, the scribe would draw a little image of a woman; after a man's name, a little image of a

man.

Use these alphabet charts and copy the hieroglyphs that make up the letters of your name. The ancient

Egyptian hieroglyphs were very colorful. Yours can be too!