Runes are the letters Germanic peoples carved into wood, bone and stone before the Latin alphabet took over. This translator writes your name in the Elder Futhark, the oldest full rune row, or in the Younger Futhark of the Viking Age. Runes stand for sounds, and this tool matches them to the letters of your name, so the result reads the way modern rune converters write names.
Names in Elder Futhark
| Name | Runes |
|---|---|
| Emma | ᛖᛗᚨ |
| Olivia | ᛟᛚᛁᚹᛁᚨ |
| Freya | ᚠᚱᛖᛃᚨ |
| Astrid | ᚨᛊᛏᚱᛁᛞ |
| Ingrid | ᛁᛜᚱᛁᛞ |
| Sigrid | ᛊᛁᚷᚱᛁᛞ |
| Liam | ᛚᛁᚨᛗ |
| Ethan | ᛖᚦᚨᚾ |
| Thomas | ᚦᛟᛗᚨᛊ |
| Erik | ᛖᚱᛁᚲ |
| Magnus | ᛗᚨᚷᚾᚢᛊ |
| Leif | ᛚᛖᛁᚠ |
| Thor | ᚦᛟᚱ |
Elder vs Younger Futhark
24 runes, used from roughly the 2nd to the 8th century. Nearly one rune per sound, so names map cleanly.
- Thor: ᚦᛟᚱ
- Astrid: ᚨᛊᛏᚱᛁᛞ
- Leif: ᛚᛖᛁᚠ
16 runes, the Viking-age row. Fewer runes means shared ones: T and D are both ᛏ, K and G both ᚴ.
- Thor: ᚦᚬᚱ
- Astrid: ᛅᛋᛏᚱᛁᛏ
- Leif: ᛚᛁᚠ
The name futhark comes from the first six runes, ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ (f, u, th, a, r, k), the same way "alphabet" comes from alpha and beta. The 24 Elder Futhark runes fall into three groups of eight, and each rune has a name: ᚠ fehu means wealth, ᛗ mannaz means man.
- Spell your name by sound for a more authentic result (Kristofer, not Christopher)
- Use the ᛫ separator between first and last names, as carvers did
- Check the breakdown for each rune's name before a tattoo or engraving
- Expect C, Q, V, X or Y to have runes of their own; they borrow K, W, KS and I
- Mix Elder and Younger runes in one name
- Treat runes as Tolkien's Elvish or Dwarvish letters, which are different scripts
Common Questions
Which runes did the Vikings use?
The Younger Futhark. By the start of the Viking Age, around 800 AD, Scandinavians had cut the rune row down to 16, and most Viking runestones are carved in it. The Elder Futhark is older, but it is the one most rune converters and tattoos use because it has more letters.
Why do some letters turn into the same rune?
Runes write sounds, and the rune rows had fewer symbols than the Latin alphabet. In the Younger Futhark, ᚢ covers U, V and W and ᛁ covers I, E and J, so Oliver becomes ᚬᛚᛁᚢᛁᚱ with ᚢ for the V.
Why don't the runes show up on my screen?
Runes have their own block in Unicode, but not every device ships a font for it. This page loads a runic font so the runes display, and anywhere you paste them will need a runic font too.