Esperantizing Your Name

Q. How would I say my name in Esperanto?

According to Rule 15 of the Esperanto foundation, or fundamento, which relates to the importation of foreign words, such words come into Esperanto unchanged, except to conform with Esperanto’s orthography. Therefore:

  • It must be spelled in Esperanto letters
  • The accent must be placed on the second to last syllable.

Many of the common Christian and names have common Esperanto forms. Biblical names can be found in the Esperanto translation of the bible. In America, non-christian and non-biblical names have proliferated. Points to keep in mind when Esperantizing your name:

  1. There are only 5 vowels: a, e, i, o, u pronounced ah eh ee oh oo, as in Ma, let me go through.
  2. W will generally become a v unless its part of a diphthong like ow, where it will be aŭ.
  3. X will ordinarily become ks
  4. Y will ordinarily become j
  5. All sounds equivalent to K will use k. C, CH, and Q can be represented by K. QU should become kv.
  6. You may wish to change the sound of your name as opposed to the writing so that it will be recognizable. For example, if it has a J pronounced like in Joe, keep the J and pronounce is like the English Y.
  7. If you are a man, you can use a diminutive form of your name by using the ending ĉjo, and women can use njo. If a woman has a feminized form of a common mans name, she can attach ino.
  8. When registering for Esperanto functions, most people use their names without change, except to render it in the Latin alphabet. Esperantizing helps so that you can use it as the root in word building.

Here below are the top twenty baby names for girls and boys in the U.S. for 2000, along with my attempts to Esperantize them.

Examples of Esperantized Names

MichaelMiĥaelo HannahHana
JacobJakobo EmilyEmilia
MatthewMateo MadisonMadisono
JosephJozefo ElizabethElisabeto
ChristopherKristoforo AlexisAleksiso
NicholasNikolaso SarahSara
AndrewAndreo TaylorTajlora
WilliamVilhelmo LaurenLaŭrena
JoshuaJosuo JessicaJesika
DanielDanielo AshleyAŝleja
TylerTajlero SamanthaSamuelino
RyanRajano BriannaBriana
AnthonyAntonio KaylaKajla
AlexanderAleksandro OliviaOlivia
ZacharyZaĥario AbigailAbigejla
DavidDavido AnnaAna
JamesJakobo AlyssaAlisa
JohnJohano EmmaEma
ChristianKristiano JenniferJenifero
JustinJustino NicoleNikolasino

by Christopher Zervic, author.

Contributed on 28 February 2002 to the public domain