To write your name in hieroglyphs, you can use the alphabetic hieroglyphs. These are the ones that stand for a single sound, like b, c, d, or f. First write your name out as normal:

   John Smith

Then think about the sounds that make up your name, and what hieroglyphs would match those sounds.

For John Smith, the first sound is j. If you look at the hieroglyphic alphabet (see below), you can see you need the cobra hieroglyph, .

  The next sound is o. For that we have the lasso hieroglyph, . The next letter is h - but is that the next sound? If you say the name john, you hear only j - o - n. So the next sound is n. The hieroglyph for n is the water sign, . So John is written like this:

You then work out the hieroglyphs for Smith in the same way. There are some more hints on writing your name in hieroglyphs lower down.

1. there was no v or th sound in ancient Egyptian, so we use the f instead (so Smith will have at the end)

2. the c  of is a hard c as in cat, not as in cider

3. The reed, , stands for the i sound you hear in Bill. If you listen to the i in Mike or Kyle, it's made up of two sounds, a - i. So we write it like this: . 

Think about all your vowel sounds - what is the best way to write them with hieroglyphs?

4.  ,  kh, is a throaty sound like the Scottish ch in loch. 

5.    was a j as in jam. Usually in books on Egyptian writing it's written as dj.

6. was ch as in church. Usually in books on Egyptian writing it's written as tj.