Official systems, not guesses
There are many ways to write Cyrillic and Greek in Latin letters. Using the right standard matters for passports, visas, bank forms, bibliographies and URLs. This tool implements:
- Russian, readable: a common, easy-to-read system (й → y, х → kh, ц → ts, ю → yu, я → ya, щ → shch; ъ and ь dropped). Good for names in prose and URLs.
- Russian, passport (ICAO 9303): the system in Russian international passports since 2013 (й → i, ъ → ie, ю → iu, я → ia). Use it when your text must match travel documents.
- Ukrainian, official (KMU 2010): Ukraine’s national standard, used in passports and official maps (Київ → Kyiv, Харків → Kharkiv). It applies position rules (є, ї, й, ю, я are written differently at the start of a word (Yevhen) than elsewhere (Haievyi)) and “зг” becomes “zgh” to avoid confusion with “ж”.
- Bulgarian, official (2009 law): щ → sht, ъ → a, and “-ия” at the end of a word → “-ia” (България → Balgaria).
- Serbian Cyrillic → Latin: Serbian has an exact one-to-one Latin alphabet (Ђорђе → Đorđe, Љубљана → Ljubljana).
- Greek, ELOT 743 (simplified): the Greek national standard used on passports and road signs, including αυ/ευ → av/ef by context, ου → ou and μπ/ντ at word start → b/d.
Capitalisation is preserved, including all-caps words.
Worked example
Here is what the Transliteration Tool returns for its built-in example. Settings used: System: Russian, simple (readable). Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
Москва, улица Щукина, Юрий Жуков
Київ, Згурівка, ЄвгенMoskva, ulitsa Shchukina, Yuriy Zhukov
Kiїv, Zgurіvka, ЄvgenQuestions
How do I write my Russian name in English letters?
For passports, use the ICAO 9303 system. For everyday use, the readable system is closer to common spellings.
Why is it “Kyiv” and not “Kiev”?
Kyiv is the transliteration of the Ukrainian name Київ under Ukraine’s official 2010 system; Kiev comes from Russian.
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