Ogham Translator

Type a name and copy it in Ogham, the early Irish alphabet, or press Swap to read Ogham back.

Ogham Translator

Your text type or paste Latin letters

Sample below. Your text takes its place.

Direction: Latin letters to Ogham

Sample Ogham

᚛ᚑᚌᚆᚐᚋ᚜

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Check it fits: limit characters

Letter for letter, from the table under the tool. A character with no entry stays exactly as you typed it. The way back says when two letters share one code.

Next step The same name in Anglo-Saxon runes Ogham beside runes, Phoenician and Old Italic

All 36 rows

B group: b, l, f, s, n 5

Beith, the b letter U+1681. Its name means birch. Written for b.
Fearn, the f letter U+1683. Its name means alder. Written for f.
Luis, the l letter U+1682. Its name is tied to a word for herb or to one for blaze; the tree tradition gives it rowan. Written for l.
Nion, the n letter U+1685. Its name means fork or loft; the tree tradition gives it ash. Written for n.
Sail, the s letter U+1684. Its name means willow. Written for s.

H group: h, d, t, c, q 5

Ceirt, the q letter U+168A. Its name means bush or rag; the tree tradition gives it apple. Written for q.
Coll, the c letter U+1689. Its name means hazel. Written for c.
Dair, the d letter U+1687. Its name means oak. Written for d.
Tinne, the t letter U+1688. Its name means ingot, a bar of metal; the tree tradition gives it holly. Written for t.
Uath, the h letter U+1686. Its name means fear; the tree tradition gives it whitethorn. Written for h.

Show all 36 rows (26 more)

M group: m, g, ng, st, r 5

Gort, the g letter U+168C. Its name means field; the tree tradition gives it ivy. Written for g.
Muin, the m letter U+168B. Its name is read as neck, ruse or love; the tree tradition gives it vine. Written for m.
Ngeadal, the ng letter U+168D. Its name means killing; the tree tradition gives it broom or fern. Stands for the pair ng, which is matched before n and g.
Ruis, the r letter U+168F. Its name means red; the tree tradition gives it elder. Written for r.
Straif, the st letter U+168E. Its name means sulfur; the tree tradition gives it blackthorn. Stands for the pair st, which is matched before s and t.

A group: the vowels a, o, u, e, i 5

Ailm, the a letter U+1690. What its name meant is uncertain, possibly pine; the tree tradition gives it fir or pine. Written for a.
Eadhadh, the e letter U+1693. What its name meant is not known; the tree tradition gives it aspen. Written for e.
Iodhadh, the i letter U+1694. What its name meant is uncertain, probably a form of the word for yew, the tree the tradition gives it. Written for i.
Onn, the o letter U+1691. Its name means ash; the tree tradition gives it furze. Written for o.
Ur, the u letter U+1692. Its name means earth, clay or soil; the tree tradition gives it heath. Written for u.

Letters added later 7

Eabhadh, the ea letter U+1695. What its name meant is not known; the tree tradition gives it aspen. Stands for the pair ea, which is matched before e and a.
Eamhancholl again, for x U+1699. The manuscripts give this letter x as well as ch, so an x is written with it. Swap reads it back as ch.
Eamhancholl, the ch letter U+1699. Its name means twin of coll. The manuscripts give it ch, x or ae: here it stands for the pair ch, matched before c and h, and for x.
Ifin, the io letter U+1698. Its name means spine or thorn. The manuscripts give it p or io: here it stands for the pair io, and p goes to peith.
Or, the oi letter U+1696. Its name means gold; the tree tradition gives it spindle tree or ivy. Stands for the pair oi, which is matched before o and i.
Peith, the p letter U+169A. Its name means soft beith. It is found in the manuscripts only.
Uilleann, the ui letter U+1697. Its name means elbow; the tree tradition gives it honeysuckle. Stands for the pair ui, which is matched before u and i.

Stand-ins for letters Ogham never had 6

J, a stand-in with iodhadh U+1694. A stand-in: Ogham has no j. J borrows iodhadh, the i letter. Swap reads it back as i.
K, a stand-in with coll U+1689. A stand-in: Ogham has no k. K borrows coll, the c letter, whose sound was k. Swap reads it back as c.
V, a stand-in with fearn U+1683. A stand-in: Ogham has no v. V borrows fearn, the f letter. Swap reads it back as f.
W, a stand-in with fearn U+1683. A stand-in: Ogham has no w. W borrows fearn, the f letter, whose first sound was w. Swap reads it back as f.
Y, a stand-in with iodhadh U+1694. A stand-in: Ogham has no y. Y borrows iodhadh, the i letter. Swap reads it back as i.
Z, a stand-in with straif U+168E. A stand-in: Ogham has no z. Z borrows straif, which the medieval manuscripts write with a z. Swap reads it back as st.

Marks 3

Feather mark, typed as an opening parenthesis U+169B. Ogham feather mark. Marks the beginning of an Ogham text. Written for an opening parenthesis: type ( to get it.
Reversed feather mark, typed as a closing parenthesis U+169C. Ogham reversed feather mark. Marks the end of an Ogham text. Written for a closing parenthesis: type ) to get it.
Space mark with a stem line, to copy U+1680. Ogham space mark. A space that draws the stem line between two words; it is blank in fonts drawn without a stem line. Listed to copy by hand: the tool keeps the spaces you type.

How this list was compiled: Checked on 2026-10-01. Code points, names and categories: the Ogham block, U+1680 to U+169C, in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt (Unicode 18.0.0); what the space mark and the two feather marks are for: NamesList.txt of the same version. The four families of five, the order of the letters, the letter the manuscript tradition writes each with, what each Irish name means and which tree the later tradition gives it: the letter table and the text of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham, read on 2026-10-01 and again on 2026-10-03; this file is checked against it. Where the article's text says more than its table (luis, ailm, onn, iodhadh, ór), the row follows the text. The six stand-ins (j, k, v, w, y, z) are labeled: k and w follow sounds the article gives (coll was a k sound, fearn was first a w sound), z follows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straif, read the same day, which records that the medieval manuscripts write straif with a Latin z, and v, j and y are this page's own choice. The page swaps letters. It translates nothing into Irish, and a carver of the stones spelled early Irish names by sound. Licence: own list; facts from the Unicode Character Database (Unicode License v3) and from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), restated in this site's own words

How it works

This Ogham translator swaps each letter for an Ogham letter and reads Ogham back. It changes letters, not meaning: nothing is translated into Irish. Some apps strip or block these characters, and screen readers may read them badly.

Read the full guide

Twenty letters in four families

The first 20 letters come in four families of five, the B, H, M and A groups. Each has an Irish name: beith is birch, dair is oak, coll is hazel. Six later letters follow in the list. Ng and st have a letter each, and j, k, v, w, y and z borrow one, marked as a stand-in.

A line, not a stone

On standing stones Ogham runs up the edge and is read from the bottom left. Here the line runs left to right. Type ( and ) around a name for the feather marks that open and close an Ogham text. Swap reads pasted Ogham back, and a stand-in comes back as the letter it borrowed.

Ogham has no capitals, so Dara and DARA come out the same.
Ea, oi, ui and io are single letters, so Sean takes three letters, not four.

Questions and answers

Is this an Ogham translation into Irish?

No. It is a letter swap: your words stay English and only the letters change. Wikipedia records that the stone inscriptions are in early Irish and usually consist of personal names. This page knows no Irish word.

Is an Irish runes translation the same thing?

If by Irish runes you mean Ogham, yes, this is the page. Ogham letters are not runes, though. Runes belong to the Germanic rows such as the Elder Futhark. Ogham is a separate alphabet of strokes and notches set along a line.

Why is Ogham called the tree alphabet?

Wikipedia records that many medieval word-plays on the letter names are understood to refer to trees and plants, so Ogham is at times called the Celtic tree alphabet. The list gives what each name means and, where it differs, the tree.

Why do I see empty boxes?

The characters arrived and the font did not. Ogham has been in Unicode since version 3.0, but a device shows it only if one of its fonts draws it. Whoever receives the text needs one too.