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See your name in ASL
Type a name and watch it fingerspelled in American Sign Language — ASL handshapes, letter by letter, signed by our 3D avatar.
What you're watching
How fingerspelling works in ASL
Fingerspelling is ASL's alphabet. Twenty-six handshapes, one for each letter, formed near the shoulder with the hand held fairly still while the fingers do the work. Words are spelled as a single flowing movement rather than twenty-six separate poses, which is why a spelled word looks nothing like a row of letters and why reading one back takes practice.
Signers fingerspell constantly, and not because something is missing. Names of people and places are spelled almost every time. So are brand names, titles, technical terms, and any English word that turns up in a conversation without an established sign — often spelled once, then replaced by a sign for the rest of the exchange. Over time some spellings have compressed into units that behave more like signs than like letters. It is a working part of the language.
What you see here is our 3D signer forming those letter handshapes. We render the shapes rather than playing recorded clips, because the same signer has to spell anything you type. What we will not claim is fluency: the shapes are the standard ones, and rhythm and transitions are where a rendered signer is still weaker than a person. Treat it as a study aid, check anything that matters against a Deaf teacher or a dictionary, and use a qualified human interpreter for any conversation with consequences. We're refining every animation and our ASL grammar, and bringing ASL professionals into that work.
Answers
Common questions
Is this real ASL?
SimuSign is in Early Access, and the signer may mis-sign a word. Fingerspelling uses a fixed set of handshapes, one per letter of the English alphabet, and those are what our avatar forms — not an animation of a hand vaguely moving. Whether a spelled name reads cleanly to a fluent signer depends on rhythm and transitions as much as on the shapes themselves, and that is the part we are still sharpening. We're refining every animation and our ASL grammar, and bringing ASL professionals into that work. We would rather you check anything here against a Deaf teacher or a dictionary than take it as settled.
When do signers actually fingerspell?
Names of people and places, most of all. Also brand names, titles, technical vocabulary, and any English word that comes up in conversation without an established sign. Signers often fingerspell a word once and then switch to a sign for it for the rest of the conversation. Some fingerspellings have worn down into sign-like units of their own over time. Fingerspelling is a working part of ASL, not a fallback for people who do not know the language.
Does this page spell everything?
Yes, and on purpose. Everything on this page is fingerspelled letter by letter, because names are exactly what ASL fingerspells — there is nothing here that a signer would render another way. The translator is where the other behaviour lives: there, a word with a hand-authored sign gets that sign, and only the words without one are fingerspelled, shown as fingerspelling rather than passed off as something else. A word without a sign is fingerspelled, never given an invented sign.
See how full sentences are signedCan I use this to talk to a Deaf person?
Not as a replacement for a live interpreter. This page is a study aid. It renders one direction only, English into ASL, it cannot read signing back, and it has no judgment about context, register or repair when something is misunderstood. Real conversations that matter — medical, legal, employment, anything with consequences — need a qualified human interpreter.
Why does the first load take a moment?
The signer is a real 3D model, about 25 MB, downloaded once and cached by your browser after that. We load it rather than playing pre-rendered video clips because the same signer has to spell any name you give it here — and sign whole sentences elsewhere in the product — at any speed, from any angle.
Is my name sent anywhere?
No. Fingerspelling runs entirely in your browser: the letters become handshapes locally and nothing about the name leaves the page. The share link simply carries the name in the URL so the page can spell it again for whoever opens it.
The 3D signer downloads a ~25 MB model on your first visit (cached after that). Fingerspelling is how ASL renders names and words without their own sign — these are the standard ASL letter handshapes. Full sentences with ASL grammar live in the free ASL Studio. What it can't do yet, in plain language: see exactly where we are.