Writing your name

“How do I write my name in Baybayin?” – It depends what your name is.

The general rule is to spell as pronounced. Since people pronounce their names differently, it’s entirely up to you how you want it translated to Baybayin. Some traditional translation examples:

Rhea = DE/RE-YA
I assume it’s  pronounced ReYa but if you say ReA then the translation would be DE/RE-A
Aguila = A-GI-LA
If you don’t pronounce the U, then drop it. If you pronounce it, then the translation would be A-GU-I-LA.
Now for some hard names
Anastasia = A-NA-TA-SI-YA
Just like Rhea, I assume it’s pronounced YA at the end.
Junior = DI-YO-NI-YO
Since there’s no J in Baybayin, a combo of the DA & YA characters with kuldits do the trick of emulating the J sound. More info about J here.

Some words/names are Consonant/Consonant/Vowel (CCV). While the basic traditional Baybayin rule is to drop anything not followed by a vowel, there are exceptions 🙂

Cruz = KA-DU/RU
Typing Cruz in the translator would only yield the DU/RU character. You should type it in as “Karuz”. While not exactly phonetic, it’s pretty close.
Christian = KA-DI/RI-TI-YA
The silent H is dropped and the A is translated to YA. The online translator will not recognize “Christian”, you will have to type it in a Baybayin friendly format.

118 thoughts on “Writing your name”

  1. Pingback: Baybayin Alibata translator | Baybayin.com

  2. Pingback: Manny Pacquiao in Baybayin | Baybayin.com not Alibata

  10. do you still charge for writing out a tat? you did one of mine a few years ago and i really want to get my son’s name.

    Reply

  13. Hi, I was wondering how you would translate the j sound. Like for Geraldine or genna. Is that with a g or a diye? I am trying to figure out how to translate. Genna (Jenna), Giuliana (geeuuliiiaannaa), Glen, Leonard. Help

    Reply

  17. you are by far the most reliable person to ask about anything related to the baybayin transcript and i would like to ask you something. both my family names have been quite easy to write in translation but i want to make sure it is correct for future personal reference.
    Hinayo can be translated as ; hi-na-yo
    Suase can be translated as ; su-a-se
    your feedback Mr. Cabuay is greatly appreciated

    Reply

  25. hey, can you help me i want a tattoo of my name aeriel, like the little mermaid or the word love in baybayin as a tattoo. My name is pronounced AY-REE-YEL.

    Reply

  32. I wanted to make sure I was translating my last name correctly. Are these correct?
    Cabaccang
    Traditional: ka-ba-ka
    Modern: ka-ba-ka-ng

    Reply

  40. I wanted to translate my last name. It’s Di Maio and with no silent letters and every letter is pronounced. So is it Di – ma – i – o ? I would appreciate it. Love the work!

    Reply

  44. Is it acceptable to use Baybayin for initials/monogram? I’m attempting to design a logo/trademark of sorts that include my initials, “DMS” [Da Ma Sa]

    Reply

    • Also, if I were to design a monogram style logo using initials, would it be necessary to add the consonant only kudlit for each letter?

      Reply

      • Thank you for your prompt reply… I apologize for the redundant question – your reply did not show on my screen until I’d posted it. Thanks again.

  48. Hi. My sister and I wanted to get our last name translated into Baybayin and then tattooed on. I’ve been reading up on how to write it, but want to make sure we get it right. The last part is where I’m confused on how to write the way it sounds. My last name is Talao. Ta-lao. The -ao sounds ow like in “pow” or “now”, not “low”.

    Reply

  53. I am trying to write my mom’s maiden name, Bautista. I have so far, Ba U Ti S ta Does that seem correct? Thanks

    Reply

  54. my name is jackie, would i have to write it like: di-ya-ki ? i was reading the modified baybayin too so i’m not sure if it would still be “ja-ki” or should it have been written in the old way with the kudlits? thank you in advance

    Reply

  57. Thank you very much for your earlier reply. Also I’m planning do a painting for my son’s ninong and ninang as a gift for the baptism. Would the spelling be NI-NA-NG/NI-NO-NG? or without the NG? Salamat po…

    Reply

  58. Sir, wanted to know if you could translate my last name in baybayin. Tried using your online translator but just wanted to make sure I’m doing it right. My last name is spelled LLANTOS. I entered it the way it’s spelled and any other ways it sounded like LIANTOS and LEANTOS and each came out with different results. Could you please help.

    Reply

      • Hello sir. Ive been reading and trying to translate my middle and last names into baybayin. I just want to make sure if i did the correct translations:

        Cataquis = Ka-Ta-Ki
        Ortico = O-Ti-Ko

        If im going to design these in a triangular manner, which character should be on top? Will it be the “Ta”?

        Your advice on this will be very much appreciated.

      • Great. Thank you so much for the quick response sir. I really appreciate it.

        How about if im to write these in a triangular way? Would Ka-Ta-Ki be:

        Ka (bottom left)-Ta (top)-Ki (bottom right)?

        Are there rules in doing this?

        Sorry for posting my reply here. Cant seem to reply to your post below.

  68. eto po, pano gawing alibata letters? “mga obra maestra ng mga makabagong pilipinong kwentista” kailangan po kasi namin sa project. itatranslate daw. Hindi naman po tama ung nasa microoft word na font kasi per letter ung lumalabas.. Thanks a lot po 🙂

    Reply

  71. Can you translate my name into baybayin? Ma. Janna Ysadrea Dadizon Mangco. Thanks!

    Ma = short for Maria
    Janna = Jan-na
    Ysadrea = I-sad-dreya
    Dadizon = Da-di-zon
    Mangco = Mang-ko

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s