I’ve spent a bit more time on my arabic to english transliteration, it now does English to Arabic as well. So put your name into the text area below hit the “To Arabic” button and see what your name looks like in Arabic characters. Also have a go at pasting some Arabic text in to find out how those characters are pronounced (well…roughly pronounced
) you have to be a bit creative and imagine that there are a few more vowels between the letters when doing the Arabic to English (see my lower transliteration post below for an explanation why).
Tags: arabic, transliteration

62 comments
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February 2, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Siko
This is incredible!
February 2, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Rob
Thanks Siko, Good to have some feedback from an Arabic speaker
February 16, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Hannah
oooh, funky!
May 6, 2007 at 1:10 am
nemar
excellent tool, excellent job
i would suggest (if time permits you) to try and include numbers for letters not included in the latin alphabet or group of letters that will equal foneticaly to the arabic sounds (well where possible)
May 7, 2007 at 3:08 pm
eljandre mulder
Hi!
Can someone assist me please! My name is ELJANDRE and i would like to know or see the Arabic writing/spelling of my name. Please help?
May 11, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Rob
thanks nemar, i’ll do a reworking to include some numbers in there
June 3, 2007 at 3:20 am
DaRon
Does this mean that we have to put our names in backwards?
June 4, 2007 at 7:57 am
Rob
nope, that’s all taken care of for you
June 16, 2007 at 4:58 am
Rajesh
Hi, I found this tool useful for our business. Is there any desktop application of this tool? If it is there, do you have free trial version? And what is the licence fee for the software?
June 27, 2007 at 11:31 am
Rob
Hi Rajesh, glad you are finding it useful. I don’t have a desktop version of this tool. Email me at ( rob_s_smart at hotmail dot com ) with what you are using it for and how often.
July 4, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Pete
Hello — i’ve been looking for a transliteration or transcription tool that will display the Arabic translation of a word or prhase spelled out in English text — i know it must exist because they do it in the media all the time — for some reason i have been unsuccessful in finding something like this — everything i come across shows the Arabic characture only.
July 6, 2007 at 10:27 am
Rajesh
Hi Pete,
Same is the situation for me. Even I am looking for arabic to english transliteration tool. I was able to get arabic character mapping into english but I could’t find any transliteration tool which will give high accuracy. Please tell me if you got this tool. We will welcome any type i.e. desktop application or web service.
Thank You.
Rajesh Taware
July 9, 2007 at 2:53 am
Michel H. Porcher
Hi Rob,
This is a potentially great and Highly needed tool. You are almost there but not quite. I have been using one such tool for Hebrew. When entering words without the vowel marks it works just like yours, but enter a word with vowels marks and bingo one gets a decent transliteration. Given that Arabic works like Hebrew (ie. mostly written with consonants and on occasions with vowel marks) it should be possible for you do achieve the same objective. Here is the address of the Hebrew gadget (Automatic Transliteration utility v 2.0.) http://www.bethimmanuel.org/hebrew/tools/transliterate.shtml
Please let me know when get there I’ll be one of your fans.
Cheers
Michel
July 18, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Alex
Hi I have been looking around for online name transltors from English to Arabic and i stumbled upon yours, I tried to translate my name (alex) and it came up with اليكس which translated back to Englsih spells ‘aliks’ is this correct?
July 20, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Rob
Hey Alex, I checked with my fully fluent arabic speaking wife
and she says that is indeed how she would write Alex in arabic
July 25, 2007 at 2:07 am
Alex
Thanks allot Rob I may get my Arabic name made into gold now.
September 12, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Ian Hamilton
Thanks Rob for the translation’s, Great tool !!
Freaky
September 24, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Amr Gharbeia
I do not know if you use a database for this, but sometime ago, I built a database linking difference transliterations together and with the Arabic original, so if you search for Mohamed, you can get results for Mohammed, Muhammad, Muhammed, محمد and all other variations.
I then wrote up a simple transliteration standard that uses only the 26 letters on a regular Latin keyboard, with no extra dots, umlauts or signs. The purpose of the standard is not to give an exact sound of the Arabic original (since only Arabic can do this). Rather it aims at helping a non-Arabic speaker with zero knowledge of Arabic to pronounce the name in a way that would help an Arabic speaker identify the name.
If this is a free project (code and data), please get in touch. I would love to put this on the web, so others add to it, and hopefully later on have it used by search engines.
September 27, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Emily
Hi Rob,
Quick question…my arabic is extremely poor so i wonder if you can help! Can a translation from english to Arabic vary in look with the use of different vowels? For instance ‘Emily’ changes to imili, could there also be a amali translation or emelee? I ask as i (supposedly) have an ‘emily’ in arabic necklace but your translation appears to be different.
Kind regards
October 1, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Hanan Smart
Hi Emily,
There are only 3 main vowels in Arabic, rather than 5 English vowels:
a (in English) = a (in Arabic) [ا or أ]
e, i and y (in English) = i (in Arabic) pronounced ‘ee’ [ي or إ]
o, u and w (in English) = oo (in Arabic) [و]
So when Rob’s translator translated your name, it changed anything that sounds like (ee) to an (i).
So it changed the first letter of your name to (i), the i to (i) and the y to (i).
As all words vary in sound in English, it’s difficult to translate those letters to the correct sound in Arabic … that’s where you need human input.
I would write your name in Arabic as إميلي …. or some people might write it إيميلي … by adding an extra (ee) as the second letter.
For completness of info:
There are also some soft vowels in Arabic that are a lighter version of (a, ee and oo) … but Rob’s translator does not cover these. This shouldn’t affect most translations, it just increases the preciseness of the translation. Hope this makes sense … it’s quite hard to explain it in writing.
Salam Alaikum
October 7, 2007 at 7:50 am
chris
thanks alot i reallly love the way arabic writing looks, i been to a iraq 2 times as a american soldiers. people need to see the difference to what u see in tv, i love america and this is the best country in the world. but we all americans are not looking at reality and that is the all muslim and middle easterners are not terrorist. this came in very handy i want a tatoo in arabic writting in rememberence of my father who passed away.
October 7, 2007 at 8:56 am
Rob
Thanks for the comment Chris, and if you’d like to post your fathers name here then I can double check that its correct before you get the tattoo.
October 17, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Erica
Hi, I found this site a few months ago when I was thinking of getting a tattoo in Arabic. I had printed a few things out for me and a few co-workers when a woman we work with –who is fluent in Arabic– told us that while it was BASICALLY right, it was missing a few things here and there, or she added a few strokes.
I wanted to make sure that these are right before I get my tattoo this weekend. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
October 20, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Rob
Erica you haven’t posted what your geting tattoo’d … so I can’t tell you whether they are correct
If you have a friend fluent in arabic though I would definitely check with them before geting a tattoo
October 22, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Erica
I was thinking of either getting my name (ERICA) or the word LOVE tattooed. If you could post it in Arabic so that I could double check with her, I would appreciate it.
Whenever I try to get the Arabic for LOVE, it comes out incomplete.
Thanks.
October 27, 2007 at 9:32 am
Rob
Hey Erica, your name would be اريكا
The word love is pronounced “hub” and written حب a nicer word is actually habibi which means “my love” and is written حبيبي
October 28, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Stefanie
on this site my name is different than when i did it on an other site.
here it’s shorter, on the other site, there are 2 more ’signs’ on the back:
سفثبشىهث
on this site it’s: ستيفانيي
wich one is the right one?
October 28, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Rob
Hi Stefanie I’ve checked with my arabic speaking wife and the other site spells your name as “sfthbshahth” and doesnt make any sense at all. The one
you got from here is almost exactly right but should be one letter shorter and be ستيفاني
November 14, 2007 at 5:48 am
Jennifer
I need help desperately! My boyfriend is getting 2 tattoos in arabic for his birthday which is this Thursday and will be getting the tattoos in 3 days. He needs to get 4 words translated to make a decision but with all of the translation generators out there i’m not sure if the translations we have are correct. Can you please tell me if these are correct??
perseverence = المثابرة
courage = الشّجاعة
independence = الاستقلال
resilience = لمرونة
November 15, 2007 at 3:32 am
Alexndn
November 16, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Rob
Hi Jennifer, Hanan tells me that they are all correct apart from resilience which is correct but should have an extra alif (the vertical stick on the right hand side, just like the other three words do)
November 19, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Natalie
Hi,
Can you please confirm that this is correct: Jayden Amari Victor my little prince - (to arabic) - جايدين اماري ڤيكتور مي ليتتلي برينكي - It’s very important that this is perfect as I am getting this as a tattoo very soon!
Your help would be much appreciated.
November 22, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Rob
Hi Natalie, this is a transliterator not a translator. it simply changes the english letters to arabic letters.
please read my previous post for an explanation of the difference between translation and transliteration
http://robsmart.co.uk/2007/02/01/arabic-transliteration/
don’t get that tattoo’d as it will not make sense to an Arabic speaker, it is simply the sentence you have written but in arabic characters.
January 4, 2008 at 11:48 am
mairi
17/11/06
January 27, 2008 at 7:03 pm
ŠPELA ŽIBERT
hello!
my name is Špela which would be pronounced SHPELA. the end of the name and the letter e as well is pronounced as the name Ella. it’s important that you know what the e is not pronounced as ee!!!its a tipycal slovenian name and it is hard to explain the pronounciation.
thanks
February 6, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Laura
Hey Rob,
I lived in the Middle East for 7 years and find arabic text really sentimental, so I would like to get the name of my brother tattooed on my arm in arabic. I typed his name (Phillip) into the translator and it came out as بهيلليب - and when translated back to english it came out as Phillip, which was correct, but I wanted to make double sure that it was 100% right before I got it tattooed onto my body. Haha.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
February 8, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Hanan
Hi Laura,
I’m Rob’s wife, replying on Rob’s behalf.
It looks like the transliterater does not know to change the sound of ‘PH’ to ‘F’.
Also, in Arabic there is no need for the double L.
Rob is updating it now :o)
Here’s what (phillip) should be in Arabic = فيليب
Good luck :O)
February 19, 2008 at 9:33 pm
cat
I used this tool to figure out english sayings in Arabic.. but when i put arabic words in english it doesn’t translate??
February 19, 2008 at 9:36 pm
cat
I want to figure out how to say in arabic.. (What i fear I create)
Thanks
February 19, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Rob
Hi Cat, this is a transliteration tool (changes english alphabet to arabic alphabet and vice versa) you need a translation tool instead. have a go on googles arabic translation here
February 20, 2008 at 2:06 am
cat
Thanks Rob, you are a great help!
February 20, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Demi
is this trustfull? because i wan’t an arabic tattoo and i wanna know for shure that the translation is right..
thanks
February 22, 2008 at 12:42 am
Rob
Hi Demi, please read the response to Cat above your comment.
March 9, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Robert
What is really needed is when English is transliterated to Arabic it should also show the same Arabic answer but spelled in Roman letters like; Love=Hub, very=kulish and friend=sadik, thank you=shukran, etc…and not just have Arabic script.
Are there any transliterator programs out there that will do this? I am not so much wanting to read Arabic script as i am wanting to pronounce the equivelent spoken word.
Can you help me find what i need?
Regards
Robert
March 11, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Rob
hi Robert, if you used google translate on an english phrase to get the arabic then pasted it in here and transliterated it, you would get the same effect.
I’m not quite up to writing my own translation engine at the moment I’ll leave that to IBM Research and Google
March 17, 2008 at 9:54 am
bose
i wana learn arabic as i am going 2 bahrein 4 da 1st time, but i dnt know how 2 read arabic, al this online language converters are giving text out put in arabic, what do i do now
March 25, 2008 at 12:09 am
المهاجر
There is a very robust and professional web-based Arabic transliteration text pad. Check it out, you will find it very useful
http://www.eiktub.com
This is also used to search google for Arabic content
http://search.eiktub.com
April 1, 2008 at 5:56 am
zharif
stumbled upon this website.
in malaysia, this form of arabic characters being used is called ‘jawi’
it’s literally a direct translation of letters into arabic characters.
just my 2 cents worth.
April 1, 2008 at 6:03 am
zharif
Laura, the direct translation of phillip sounds more like bihillib and in my opinion, that’s not the closest u can get in spelling using arabic characters
i wld suggest characters ‘fa, ya, lam, ya, pa’
April 2, 2008 at 11:47 am
Rob
hi Zharif, yes you are correct. The correct term for spelling an english word using arabic letters is transliteration, not translation which has caused some confusion throughout the comments in this post
April 15, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Holly
Hi Guys..
Could someone please translate the following as i dont want them to be tattooed and not be right..
Holly
Felicity
Thank you!!!
April 28, 2008 at 10:38 pm
bev
Hi
I want to have my name as a tattoo. Could you please transliterate my name beverley into arabic please. I have been trying to get the correct transliteration for ages now. The sites I have visited all give different transliteration which has left me very confused.
Thank you
May 7, 2008 at 5:46 pm
idrees
Yes this is good but i reallly want to know what names mean in arabic so if you have a website can you give it to me please??
thanks
idrees
May 16, 2008 at 8:32 am
Kira
Hi my little boy is 2 months old and his name is Jayden Alexander Cassani. I would really appriciate if anyone could assist me with translating his name into arabis since i want to get a tatto of his name. Thankyou
May 27, 2008 at 11:25 am
ryan
really do like this doing a tattoo on my arm for “aimee” and it looks really good could u confirm it is right? obviously tattoos are for life

June 4, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Iain
Hi there,
I am considering having my wifes name tattooed on my wrist. Have been to a few translation sites and all seem to be slightly different. Could you confirm the correct translation please.
Her name Sallie-anne.
Regards
June 8, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Aliya
Hello! I want to know how to write:
“Through God and family, all things are possible”
Can someone help me?
August 12, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Alex
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!