How to write your name in Morse code
To write your name in Morse code, take it one letter at a time: look up each letter’s pattern of dots and dashes, write it down, and leave a clear space before the next letter. Between a first and a last name, put a slash. SARAH becomes ... .- .-. .- ...., and LEO KIM becomes .-.. . --- / -.- .. --.
That is the whole method. There is one catch worth knowing before you write your name anywhere permanent: the spaces are part of the code. Nothing else tells a reader where one letter ends and the next begins.
Step by step, with an example
Take the name SARAH.
- Write the name in capitals, with room under each letter: S, A, R, A, H. Morse has no upper or lower case, so capitals are simply easier to work from, and they make a skipped or doubled letter easy to spot.
- Look up each letter in the table below and write its pattern under it: S is
..., A is.-, R is.-., A again is.-, and H is..... - Join the patterns with one clear space between letters:
... .- .-. .- ..... - Read it back with the table, left to right, one group at a time. Three dots is S, dot dash is A, and so on. If you get your name back, you are done.
A full name works the same way, with / between the names. LEO is .-.. . ---, KIM is -.- .. --, and LEO KIM is .-.. . --- / -.- .. --. The slash is the written sign for a word gap. When Morse is sent as sound, it becomes a longer pause.
It helps to say the rhythm out loud as you write. People who use Morse learn the letters as sounds rather than rows of symbols: A is di-dah, R is di-dah-dit, H is di-di-di-dit. SARAH sounds like di-di-dit, di-dah, di-dah-dit, di-dah, di-di-di-dit. Saying it catches a missing dot faster than staring at it does.
The alphabet, A to Z
| Letter | Code | Letter | Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | .- |
N | -. |
| B | -... |
O | --- |
| C | -.-. |
P | .--. |
| D | -.. |
Q | --.- |
| E | . |
R | .-. |
| F | ..-. |
S | ... |
| G | --. |
T | - |
| H | .... |
U | ..- |
| I | .. |
V | ...- |
| J | .--- |
W | .-- |
| K | -.- |
X | -..- |
| L | .-.. |
Y | -.-- |
| M | -- |
Z | --.. |
Every letter is one to four symbols long. The most common letters in English got the shortest codes, which is why E is a single dot and T a single dash, and why a name full of E, T, A, I and N comes out short. If your name includes a figure, every figure is five symbols: 1 is .---- and 0 is -----. The Morse code alphabet, A to Z, with the rhythm of each letter has every letter with its sound.
Spacing so it reads right
Written Morse has three kinds of space, and each one means something:
| Where | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Inside a letter | Nothing: keep the symbols together | .-.. is one letter, L |
| Between letters | One clear space | .- -. is A, then N |
| Between words | A slash with a space each side | .- -. / .- -. is AN AN |
The space between letters matters most. Take it out of AN and you get .--., which is the letter P. Worse, those same four symbols also spell ATE, WE, EG and EME, depending on where the reader decides the letters break. Without the space, no reader and no decoder can tell which one you meant.
A space in the wrong place does the opposite damage: it splits a letter. Write L as .- .. and it reads AI.
When you write by hand, make the space between letters obviously wider than the space between the symbols inside a letter. Morse timing gives a good proportion to copy: the pause between letters lasts three times as long as the pause inside one. So keep the dots and dashes of one letter close together, and leave about three dot-widths before the next letter.
Names with hyphens, apostrophes or accents
Morse has codes for the punctuation most names need, each written as its own character with a space on either side:
| Mark | Code | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hyphen | -....- |
MARY-JANE |
| Apostrophe | .----. |
O’NEILL |
| Period | .-.-.- |
after an initial |
MARY-JANE is -- .- .-. -.-- -....- .--- .- -. ., and O’NEILL is --- .----. -. . .. .-.. .-... Each mark adds six symbols, so on a bracelet or a ring you may prefer to leave them out and let a letter space do the work. For initials, a letter space is enough: you do not need a period after each one.
For an accented letter, the simplest choice is the plain letter: JOSÉ as JOSE, ZOË as ZOE. A name from another script is easiest in the Latin spelling you already use for it, such as the one in your passport.
Getting it onto paper, a card or a bracelet
On paper or a card. Draw dots as round dots and dashes as short bars about three times as long. That is the same 1 to 3 proportion as a dit and a dah in sound, and it stops a short dash from passing for a dot. Pencil it first and ink it last. If the card is meant as a puzzle, write the alphabet on the back so the reader can decode it.
Typed. Use a period for a dot and a hyphen for a dash, one space between letters and / between words. Watch what your typing does to them: some apps quietly turn two hyphens into one long dash and three periods into a single ellipsis character, which changes the count. Look at the result before you send or print it.
On a bracelet or a pendant. Beads usually stand for the symbols: a round bead for a dot, a longer bead for a dash, and a different spacer bead between letters. The letter break is the easiest part to get wrong, so read Morse code bracelets and jewelry: getting the code right before you order or thread one.
As sound. Tap it on a table, hum it, or whistle it: short for a dot, long for a dash, and a clear pause between letters. It is a nice way to sign off a voice message.
Check it before you finish
The easiest mistake to make is an extra or missing dot, because so many characters are runs of the same symbol: I is two dots, S three, H four, and 5 five. Three quick checks catch it:
- Decode it cold. Cover your name, then decode the Morse from scratch with the table, one letter at a time. How to decode Morse code by hand, step by step shows a method that does not depend on memory.
- Count each letter. Under each group, write how many symbols it has and compare with the table. A miscount stands out at once.
- Ask someone else. Give a friend only the Morse and an alphabet, not the name, and see what they read.
On a Mac, Dot & Dash can do the lookup and the check. In Transcribe, Text to Morse turns a typed name into its dots and dashes, ready to copy, and plays it on the machine so you can hear the rhythm. Morse to Text goes the other way, which makes it a quick check on a pattern someone else wrote down. Text to Morse code: turn any message into Morse covers both directions.
Questions
How do I separate my first and last name in Morse code?
Put a slash with a space on each side between them, as in .-.. . --- / -.- .. -- for LEO KIM. When Morse is sent as sound, the slash stands for a pause of seven units, longer than the three-unit pause between letters.
Does it matter if my name is in capitals or lower case?
No. Morse code has no upper or lower case, so Sarah, SARAH and sarah are all ... .- .-. .- .....
Why does my name look different on two Morse charts?
If one chart shows a space inside letters such as C or O, it is probably American Morse, the old landline code. Use International Morse, the code used on radio and taught today, and the one in the table above.
Can I write numbers, like a birth year, in Morse?
Yes. Every figure is five symbols, from 1 as .---- to 0 as -----, so a four-figure year is twenty symbols long. Put a letter space between figures exactly as you would between letters.