A fifth-century Irish druid might have carved his name into a standing stone with a sharp iron tool. The notches and lines were not just letters. They were a claim on the land, a mark of identity, a prayer. Today, we do the same with a pen or a keyboard, but the question remains: how do you write your name in Ogham? Ogham is an early medieval alphabet used to write Primitive Irish, consisting of twenty letters grouped into four aicmí (families) of five strokes each. The key fact: Ogham is written vertically from bottom to top, or horizontally from left to right, with each letter represented by a combination of one to five straight lines crossing or meeting a central stem line.
Where Ogham Comes From and Why It Matters
The earliest Ogham inscriptions date from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, found primarily in Ireland and western Britain. Over 400 stones survive, many in County Kerry and County Cork. The alphabet is named after Ogma, a god of eloquence in Irish mythology. The medieval Auraicept na n-Éces (the Scholars’ Primer, 7th century) claims Ogham was invented by the mythical figure Fenius Farsaid, who created it from the languages of the world after the Tower of Babel. That story tells us how the medieval Irish understood their script: as a sacred, comprehensive system.
The stones themselves were not casual graffiti. They marked boundaries, commemorated the dead, and asserted ownership. A typical inscription reads “MAQI DECEDDAS” (son of Deceddas). The notches were a legal and political act. When you write your name in Ogham today, you are participating in that same tradition of marking identity on a surface, even if the surface is paper or a screen.
The alphabet has twenty primary letters (feda), each named after a tree or plant. The Bríatharogam (word-ogham) tradition, recorded in the Ogam Tract (14th century, but preserving older lore), gives each letter a kennings-style phrase. For example, Beith (birch) is “whitest of skin” or “beginning of life.” The tree associations were not original to the script itself but were added later by scholars to give each letter a symbolic depth. That depth is what makes writing your name in Ogham more than a transcription exercise.
What Each Ogham Letter Means
The twenty letters are divided into four aicmí (groups) of five. The first aicme contains B, L, F, S, N. The second: H, D, T, C, Q. The third: M, G, NG, Z, R. The fourth: A, O, U, E, I. Each letter has a tree name and a set of associations that practitioners draw on for divination and meditation.
- Beith (B) – birch. Beginnings, purification, renewal.
- Luis (L) – rowan. Protection, quickening, the threshold.
- Fearn (F) – alder. Strength, resilience, the warrior’s tree.
- Sail (S) – willow. Cycles, intuition, the moon.
- Nion (N) – ash. The world tree, connection between realms.
- Uath (H) – hawthorn. Protection, the thorny barrier, the May tree.
- Dair (D) – oak. Strength, endurance, the druid’s tree.
- Tinne (T) – holly. Justice, the sacred wound, the winter king.
- Coll (C) – hazel. Wisdom, poetry, the salmon of knowledge.
- Quert (Q) – apple. Choice, the otherworld, immortality.
- Muin (M) – vine. Prophecy, intoxication, the spiral.
- Gort (G) – ivy. Binding, persistence, the green path.
- nGétal (NG) – reed. Healing, the arrow, the voice of the marsh.
- Straif (Z) – blackthorn. Fate, the crone, the bitter end.
- Ruis (R) – elder. Endings, the cauldron, the death of the year.
- Ailm (A) – silver fir. The high one, the pine, the birth of the sun.
- Onn (O) – gorse. Fire, the sun’s return, the golden blaze.
- Úr (U) – heather. The earth, the moor, the bee’s treasure.
- Eadhadh (E) – aspen. The trembling tree, the wind, the spirit.
- Iodhadh (I) – yew. Death, the ancestor, the eternal.
These associations are not fixed. Different manuscripts give different kennings. What matters is that each letter carries a weight. When you write your name, you are not just spelling a sound. You are invoking a sequence of symbolic forces. And if you have been pronouncing Beith as “bayth” instead of “beh,” you are in good company. The reconstructed pronunciation varies.
How to Transcribe Your Name into Ogham
The process is straightforward but requires attention to two rules: Ogham has no letters for J, V, W, X, Y, or Z, and the script is written along a central stem line (druim) with strokes to the left, right, or crossing it.
Step one: Write your name in the Latin alphabet. Use standard English spelling. For example, “Anna.”
Step two: Map each letter to its Ogham equivalent. Use the standard correspondences:
| Latin | Ogham | Stroke pattern |
|---|---|---|
| A | Ailm | Five strokes to the right of the stem line |
| B | Beith | One stroke to the left |
| C | Coll | Five strokes crossing the stem line |
| D | Dair | Four strokes to the left |
| E | Eadhadh | Four strokes to the right |
| F | Fearn | Three strokes to the left |
| G | Gort | Four strokes crossing the stem line |
| H | Uath | Two strokes to the left |
| I | Iodhadh | Five strokes crossing the stem line |
| L | Luis | Two strokes to the right |
| M | Muin | Three strokes crossing the stem line |
| N | Nion | Five strokes to the left |
| O | Onn | Three strokes to the right |
| P | (no direct equivalent; use Q or B) | – |
| Q | Quert | Five strokes crossing the stem line |
| R | Ruis | Four strokes crossing the stem line |
| S | Sail | Four strokes to the right |
| T | Tinne | Three strokes crossing the stem line |
| U | Úr | Five strokes to the right |
| V | (use F) | – |
| W | (use U) | – |
| X | (use Z or KS) | – |
| Y | (use I) | – |
| Z | Straif | Five strokes crossing the stem line (but note: Straif is often used for Z, but its value in Primitive Irish was probably a sibilant) |
For “Anna”: A (Ailm) = five strokes right, N (Nion) = five strokes left, N again = five strokes left, A again = five strokes right.
Step three: Choose your orientation. Traditional Ogham on stone is written vertically from bottom to top along the edge of the stone. The stem line is the edge. In manuscripts, it is often written horizontally from left to right, with the stem line as a baseline. Either is acceptable. For a modern inscription on paper, horizontal left-to-right is easier to read.
Step four: Draw the stem line. A straight vertical or horizontal line. Then for each letter, draw the strokes perpendicular to the stem line. Strokes to the left (in vertical orientation) or above (in horizontal) are the “left” side. Strokes to the right or below are the “right” side. Crossing strokes go through the stem line.
Step five: Check your work. Count the strokes per letter. A common mistake is to reverse the side (putting a Beith stroke on the right instead of the left). Another is to forget that Ogham has no double letters; write each letter individually.
Ogham is often compared to runes, and for good reason. Both are alphabets used for writing, divination, and magical inscription. But the differences are sharp. Runes are Germanic, carved in angular shapes that suit wood and stone. Ogham is Celtic, built from straight lines that suit the edges of standing stones. Runes have a fixed set of 24 (in the Elder Futhark), while Ogham has 20 primary letters plus five forfeda (additional letters added later for Latin borrowings). The tree associations of Ogham are unique; runes have no consistent botanical symbolism.
Another comparison is with the Latin alphabet itself. Ogham was never a secret code. It was the everyday script of early medieval Ireland, used for short inscriptions on stone and occasionally in manuscripts. The Book of Ballymote (1390) contains a key to Ogham, showing that even then it was a learned tradition. Writing your name in Ogham is not a cipher exercise. It is a deliberate act of connecting to a specific cultural and spiritual lineage.
Ogham is not a divination system by itself. Modern practitioners often use Ogham staves for divination, but the historical evidence for that is thin. The Auraicept treats Ogham as a writing system, not a tool for prophecy. The tree associations were added by medieval scholars, not by the original stone carvers. That does not make them invalid for modern use, but it means we should not claim they are ancient.
You cannot write every name exactly as spelled. If your name contains J, V, W, X, Y, or Z, you must substitute. For example, “John” becomes “Iohann” (I for J, O for O, H for H, A for A, N for N, N for N). Some modern Ogham enthusiasts use the forfeda (additional letters) for these sounds, but the forfeda were invented in the medieval period for Latin loanwords and are not part of the original twenty.
Ogham is not written from top to bottom. The vertical orientation is bottom to top. If you write from top to bottom, the strokes will be upside down relative to the traditional reading direction. This matters for authenticity, though for personal use you may choose any orientation.
The tree names are not the letters themselves. Beith is the name of the letter B, but the letter represents the sound /b/, not the birch tree. When you write your name, you are writing sounds, not tree symbols. The tree associations are a layer of meaning you can add, but they are not required for transcription.
FAQ
Can I write my name in Ogham if it has letters like X or Z? Yes, but you must substitute. Use Straif (Z) for X or Z, or use the forfeda if you prefer. For J, use I or G. For V, use F. For W, use U. For Y, use I.
Do I need to use the tree meanings when I write my name? No. The tree associations are a separate tradition. You can transcribe your name purely as a phonetic exercise, or you can meditate on the meaning of each letter as you write it. Both are valid.
Should I write vertically or horizontally? Either is acceptable. Vertical bottom-to-top is the traditional stone-carving orientation. Horizontal left-to-right is common in manuscripts and easier for modern readers. Choose what feels right for your purpose.
Is Ogham only for Irish names? No. Ogham was designed for Primitive Irish, but it can represent any language phonetically. English names work as long as you substitute missing letters. The result will be a phonetic approximation, not a perfect transcription.
Writing your name in Ogham is a small act of connection to a script that has marked stone and skin for over a thousand years. The notches you draw carry the same geometry that a druid or a medieval scribe used. If you want to go deeper, explore the full system of magical alphabets in our library, or look up the glossary of Ogham letters for their complete kennings and correspondences. For practical divination, our guide on Ogham staves and their meanings will show you how to turn your name into a reading. The stem line is drawn. The strokes are yours to place.