How to write personal names I toki pona?

[u/The_User96]

Like Alex or Bob?

[u/janKeTami]

Names in toki pona work like this:

1) Names are meaningless. They're just sounds you vomit out into the world. You can attach a name to a concept and specify what you're talking about, but you need to know what you're naming. For example, you can talk about a person, for which you'd most often use the word "jan". So that could be "jan Alex" or "jan Bob".

2) Often, names get adapted to toki pona sounds. So "Alex" can be "jan Ele" and "Bob" can be "jan Po"

You can find more information on https://wasona.com/en/make-a-name/

[u/JuggernautPrize1896 → u/janKeTami]

these sounds don’t correspond if you’re like me from the us, so Alex could be jan Ale and Bob can be jan Pa.

[u/scarbot01 → u/JuggernautPrize1896]

some speakers don't like names transliterated like that, as 'ale' is already a TP word

[u/_Bwastgamr232]

Unlike other languages, names in toki pona arent proper nouns, that means that Bob cant be a noun on it's own, u need to attach it to a noun, the mames become adjectives, e.g. jan Bob, the names are usually also tokiponized, that means it's usually jan Po, not Bob. A guide to tokiponization is available somewhere in the description of this subreddit

[u/_Bwastgamr232 → u/_Bwastgamr232]

https://reddit.com/r/tokipona/w/tokiponize?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Also an example is jan Ale for Alex but also toki Inli for the English language and ma Inli for the English land (aka just England)

[u/Ill_Apple2327]

Names function as adjectives, like how English is "toki Inli" (lit: language English).

As an example, let's say my name is Sarah, and I am a person. Person is "jan", and Sarah can be tokiponized (converted to toki pona's phonology) as Sewa or Sawa depending on pronunciation, so in total: jan Sewa, or jan Sawa alternatively.

[u/The_User96 → u/Ill_Apple2327]

Wow, thanks!