How to type 20 common names in Arabic letters
Names are short, and most of the vowels you hear are never typed. Muhammad is four letters: م ح م د. What trips people up is the ending. Women's names mostly end in ة, a few end in ى, and one or two end in a plain ا.
Key names are for the standard Arabic layout on Windows and Mac (Arabic 101 / Arabic PC), read off a QWERTY keyboard. Our free online Arabic keyboard shows the same layout on screen, and the phone setup guides cover iPhone and Android.
The endings
- 1ةa · ta marbuta, the usual feminine endingM
- 2ىa · alif maqsura, for ليلى and هدىN
- 3اa · plain alif, for ديناH
- 4ئ'i · hamza on a seat, in عائشةZ
The word in a sentence
| محمد | Muhammad | م ح م دno vowels typed |
| أحمد | Ahmad | أ ح م دstarts with أ, Shift+H |
| علي | Ali | ع ل يends with ي |
| عمر | Omar | ع م رع first |
| يوسف | Yusuf | ي و س ف |
| إبراهيم | Ibrahim | إ ب ر ا ه ي مإ with the hamza below |
| خالد | Khalid | خ ا ل د |
| حسن | Hassan | ح س نح, no dot |
| حسين | Hussein | ح س ي ن |
| سامي | Sami | س ا م ي |
| فاطمة | Fatima | ف ا ط م ةة at the end |
| عائشة | Aisha | ع ا ئ ش ةئ in the middle |
| مريم | Maryam | م ر ي م |
| ليلى | Layla | ل ي ل ىends with ى, not ي |
| نور | Nour | ن و ر |
| سارة | Sara | س ا ر ةة at the end |
| هدى | Huda | ه د ىends with ى |
| زينب | Zainab | ز ي ن ب |
| أميرة | Amira | أ م ي ر ةmeans princess |
| دينا | Dina | د ي ن اends with plain ا |
Questions people ask
How do I type my name in Arabic?
Write the consonants and the long vowels only. Short vowels are not typed. A name ending in -a usually takes ة, and a name ending in a long -a, like Layla, takes ى.
Why is Muhammad only four letters in Arabic?
The u and the a are short vowels, and Arabic does not write them. The doubled m is a shadda, a mark nobody types in a message. That leaves م ح م د.
Which key is ة on?
M on the standard Arabic layout. On a phone it has its own key, usually on the bottom row next to ه.
Learn the whole keyboard, one real word at a time.
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