How to Write Your Name in Armenian Letters

There is no single correct way to write an English name in Armenian letters. The spelling depends on how the name is pronounced, whether the family speaks Eastern or Western Armenian, and which spelling system they follow. Here are the decisions that matter before a name goes on anything permanent.

Start with the sound, not the English spelling

Armenian letters record sounds. The alphabet created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 has 38 letters today, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Most of them stand for one sound each.

So the first question is how the person says their name, not how it is spelled in English. Say it aloud, slowly, the way its owner says it. That sound is what gets written down.

Eastern or Western Armenian?

This is the decision most people miss. Eastern Armenian is the standard in Armenia. Western Armenian is the form most families descended from Ottoman-era Armenian communities grew up with, and that covers a large part of the American diaspora.

The two read several letters differently. The Library of Congress romanization table for Armenian lists both values side by side:

• Բ is b in Eastern Armenian and p in Western.
• Պ is p in Eastern Armenian and b in Western.
• Գ is g in Eastern Armenian and k in Western.
• Կ is k in Eastern Armenian and g in Western.
• Դ is d in Eastern Armenian and t in Western.
• Տ is t in Eastern Armenian and d in Western.

The same letters can produce two different names in English. Հակոբ reads Hakob in Eastern Armenian and Hagop in Western Armenian. Neither is wrong. They follow different standards.

It works the other way too. If you start from an English name with a b, d, g, k, p or t in it, the Armenian letter you need depends on which pronunciation the family uses.

Two spelling systems, too

Spelling differs as well as sound. Soviet Armenia reformed Armenian spelling between 1922 and 1924, with a partial revision in 1940. The reformed spelling is official in Armenia today, while Western Armenian communities kept the classical spelling, as this overview of the reform explains.

The difference shows up in everyday names. Armen is Արմէն in classical spelling and Արմեն in reformed spelling. Hakob is Յակոբ in classical spelling and Հակոբ in reformed spelling. A grandmother raised in Beirut and a cousin raised in Yerevan may each be right about the same name.

Sounds English writes differently

Some Armenian sounds have no single English letter. In the Library of Congress table, Ղ is romanized gh, Խ is kh, Ժ is zh and Շ is sh. Armenian also has two letters for r, Ռ and Ր, and two for o, Ո and Օ. The oo sound is written with two letters together, ու.

Armenian also separates sounds that English treats as one. There is a plain t, Տ, and an aspirated t, Թ, with the same split for k, p, ts and ch. English spells both versions the same way, so an English name gives no clue which one to use. This is where many spelling disagreements start.

Keep in mind that a romanization table is a cataloguing standard for librarians. It tells you how letters are transcribed, not exactly how a family pronounces them.

Before you order a name

• Ask the person, or a relative, how they write it. Many families already have a settled spelling.
• Decide on Eastern or Western Armenian, and say which in your order.
• If you only know the English spelling, enter it anyway and add a note on how the name sounds.
• Remember that Armenian has capital and lowercase letters, just like English.
• Do not copy a spelling from an automatic converter without checking it with someone who reads Armenian.

How names work on my pieces

Every design in the shop can carry an added name. Enter it in the personalization box in Latin letters or in Armenian. When the name is in Armenian, the spelling can be emailed to you for approval before anything is made. If your family spells it differently from the standard, tell me and I will change it.

The Personalized & Monogram collection gathers the designs built around a name or an initial. If you are buying for someone who does not read Armenian, this guide to gifts for non-fluent family covers what tends to work.