With sound signs you can spell your own name. Egyptians spelled foreign names this way too, especially in later times, when Greek and Roman rulers had names that Egyptian had no words for.
Key idea
Write your name with sound signs, one sign for each sound you hear: the owl for m, the water for n, the bread loaf for t.
Why it works
Egyptian sound signs were not exactly our alphabet. There were no signs for our vowels, so for fun we borrow signs: the vulture for a, the reed for e or i, the lasso for o, the quail chick for u. When scribes wrote Greek names, they used the lion for l. A double letter, like the two n's in Anna, makes one sound, so it gets one sign.
Worked example: Spell SAM
Which signs spell the name Sam?
- S: the folded cloth 𓋴.
- A: the vulture 𓄿.
- M: the owl 𓅓.
Answer: 𓋴𓄿𓅓 (cloth, vulture, owl).
Common mistake
Writing one sign for every letter, even silent ones. Write the sounds you hear. Kate ends in a silent e, so you might write k, a, t. And remember that Egyptians left out most vowels: in real Egyptian, a name would look shorter.