Names in other scripts

Two ways to write Sarah

Ask how to write Sarah in Russian and there are two good answers. The Sarah of the Bible is usually Сарра, with a double r. A modern girl called Sarah is usually Сара. In Chinese, the biblical Sarah is 撒拉, while the modern name is commonly 萨拉 or 莎拉. Korean has 세라 for one and 사라 for the other. These are all listed in Wikidata, the public database behind Wikipedia.

None of these is a mistake. Each is a choice, made by people who read and write the language, about whether a name should keep its traditional form or simply sound right. That is the first thing to understand about putting a name into another script: there is often more than one correct spelling, and only someone who knows the language can tell you which one suits the person who will wear it.

Which way the name reads

A script is a way of writing down speech, and one script can serve many languages. English, French and German all use the Latin script. Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian all use Cyrillic, which grew out of Greek capitals. Arabic script is used for Persian and Urdu as well as Arabic.

Scripts don't all run the same way, and that matters on a pendant.

• Left to right: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Devanagari and the other main scripts of India.
• Right to left: Arabic and Hebrew. The first letter of the name sits at the right-hand end.
• Either across or down: Chinese, Japanese and Korean are often written left to right in horizontal lines, but they can also be set vertically, from top to bottom, which is how Chinese was traditionally written.

A right-to-left name is where computer files most often go wrong. Software has to rearrange right-to-left text correctly before it is displayed, and design programs set up for English don't always do it. A name that has been reversed, letter by letter, can look perfectly plausible to someone who doesn't read it.

Arabic: joined, but not everywhere

Arabic is cursive even in print: the letters of a word connect, as they do in handwriting. That makes it a natural fit for a cut-out name necklace.

Two details catch people out.

• Letters change shape. Many Arabic letters have four forms, depending on whether they stand alone or come at the start, middle or end of a word. Typing software chooses the right form automatically, but only if it supports Arabic properly.
• Some letters never join the next one. A handful of letters, including alif, dal and ra, connect only to the letter before them. After one of these, there is a gap, and the word continues as a separate joined group. Sarah in Arabic, سارة, falls into three pieces for exactly this reason.

For a cut-out pendant, those gaps are part of correct spelling, not a design flaw, so they can't simply be closed up. A designer will usually link the pieces with a discreet bar or let them overlap slightly. It is worth asking how, and asking an Arabic reader whether the result still looks right.

One more point: a name can be spelled differently in different languages that share the script. Wikidata lists Sarah as سارة in Arabic, but سارا in Persian and سارہ in Urdu.

Hebrew: letters that stand apart

Hebrew also reads right to left, but its printed letters don't connect. In a cut-out pendant, they need a bar or an underline to hold them together, in the same way as separate English capitals.

Two features of Hebrew spelling are worth knowing. First, vowels are written as small dots and dashes around the letters, and these are usually left out except in religious texts and some special uses. That is why Sarah, שרה, is only three letters. Second, five Hebrew letters have a different shape when they come at the end of a word. Names and borrowed foreign words sometimes don't follow that rule, so a name's final letter is exactly the kind of detail a Hebrew reader should confirm.

Greek and Cyrillic: familiar shapes

Greek and Cyrillic look reassuringly familiar to English eyes, which is their trap. Several of their letters look like Latin ones but are different letters altogether. Typographers call these look-alikes homoglyphs. Sarah in Russian, Сара, looks for all the world like the English word "Capa", because the Cyrillic С is an s and the Р is an r.

Greek has its own end-of-word rule. The small letter sigma, the Greek s, has a special form, ς, used at the end of a word. Modern Greek also uses an accent mark, the tonos, as on the first α of Σάρα. It is part of the spelling, so check it hasn't been dropped.

Russian names can have more than one form too. Wikidata lists both Лора and Лаура for Laura.

Devanagari: hanging from a line

Devanagari is the script of Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and Sanskrit. It reads left to right, and its most striking feature is the shirorekha, the headline: a horizontal stroke along the top from which the letters seem to hang. In typesetting, the headline is meant to run unbroken across a word unless a designer chooses otherwise.

Devanagari works differently from an alphabet. Each consonant carries a built-in vowel sound, and other vowels are added as marks around it, above, below or to either side. Consonants that meet without a vowel between them are often drawn as a single combined shape, called a conjunct. Like Arabic, it relies on software to assemble those shapes correctly, and when that fails the result can be badly malformed while still looking like writing to anyone who can't read it.

Chinese, Japanese and Korean

Chinese characters, Japanese kana and Korean Hangul syllables are all written within same-sized squares, whatever their complexity. That even rhythm suits a vertical bar pendant beautifully, and because these scripts can be set top to bottom, a vertical name reads naturally.

• Chinese characters stand for words or parts of words, not just sounds. A foreign name written in Chinese is spelled with characters chosen for their sound, but each one also carries a meaning, so the choice matters. Chinese is also written in two forms: simplified characters, used in most of mainland China and in Singapore, and traditional characters, used mainly in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Ask which the wearer reads.
• Japanese uses katakana, one of its two syllable-based scripts, to write foreign words and names. Wikidata lists two katakana spellings of Sarah, サラ and セーラ, which echo different pronunciations.
• Korean Hangul is built from letters grouped into square syllable blocks. Sarah, 사라, is two blocks, each made of a consonant and a vowel.

Sound or meaning?

There are two ways to put a name into another language, and it helps to know which you want before asking anyone.

• Transliteration writes the sound of the name in the new script, letter by letter or syllable by syllable. Сара and サラ are transliterations of Sarah.
• Translation, for a name, means using the form that already exists in that language's tradition, such as the biblical Сарра. Many names have a traditional equivalent that sounds rather different.

For a gift, think about the person. Someone with family roots in a language may want the form their grandparents would recognise. Someone who simply loves a script may prefer the sound of their own name. Neither is wrong, but the two can look quite different on a pendant.

Why a native reader should check

Google's typography guide points to a long-running collection of real products, packaging and publications printed with broken Arabic: letters left unjoined, or run backwards. The usual cause is the same each time. The designer didn't read the language, the software assumed English, and nobody who could read it saw the result before it was made.

Jewellery is less forgiving than packaging. It is made once and worn for years. So the most useful thing you can do is have someone who reads the script fluently check the final design, not just the typed name.

Sacred words

Some scripts are bound up with faith, and some words carry more weight than a name. Practices differ between religions, communities and individuals, so it is worth being thoughtful rather than assuming.

One well-documented example comes from Jewish law. As Cambridge University Library explains in its account of the famous Cairo Genizah, a holy text that can no longer be used must not be destroyed or casually thrown away: texts containing the divine name should be buried or, if that isn't possible, stored in a genizah, a special storeroom.

If a design includes a name of God, a line of scripture or a religious symbol, rather than a personal name, it is kind to ask the wearer, or someone from their community, how they would feel about it being worn every day.

Every Sarah

Сарра and Сара, 撒拉 and 莎拉, سارة and سارا: one name, many right answers, each belonging to a different history. That is what makes a name in another script so personal, and why it deserves a second pair of eyes. Find the form that belongs to the wearer, ask someone who reads it to look at the finished design, and the pendant will say exactly what you meant it to.