Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Hieroglyphics were the early form of Ancient Egyptian writing. Hieroglyphics is Greek for “Sacred
Carving” or “Sacred Writing” and used pictures to represent sounds. Vowel sounds were not usually
represented but below you will find an alphabet that uses symbols most closely associated with our
English sounds. A cartouche was an Egyptian nameplate, usually for a pharaoh or high-ranking person to
include in their tomb. Hieroglyphs were written vertically on a cartouche and the oval encasing the
nameplate was thought to protect the namesake from evil spirits.
Using the alphabet below and the blank cartouche template, please create your own nameplate.
You may choose to write your name using conventional English spelling, or by writing it the original way,
phonetically, and not include vowels. (Example: “Jonathan” or “Jnthn” or “Rachel” or “rchl”).