Chloe in Cursive

Before you start, here is what is in the name. These facts come from the letters themselves, using the same school-style cursive model as the drawing above.

Chloe is written with 5 letters: C, h, l, o, e. The picture shows each different letter on its own, with the shape to aim for. The table below it lists every join in order, so you can see where the pen has to travel between letters.

The joins, one by one

A join is the connecting stroke between two letters. Where it starts depends on the letter you just finished, and where it ends depends on the letter coming next. This table follows the school-style model used for the drawings on this site; some programs use slightly different joins.

The capital C

The capital C is one open curve. Start just under the top line, swing round to the left and down, and finish near the baseline with a small flick into the h. Keep it open: a closed C looks like an O and loses the name’s first letter. The C should be about twice as tall as the lowercase letters.

h and l side by side

Two tall loops in a row are the main challenge in Chloe. The h loop and the l loop must both reach the top line, and they must not collide. The h ends in a hump on the baseline, then the pen runs straight into the l. If the loops are wide, they touch; if they are too narrow, they close into straight lines. A useful check is that you could draw a pencil between the two stems.

The dive from o to e

The o is one of the letters that leaves the pen at the middle line, and the e that follows starts lower. That means the join between them is a short downward stroke, not the flat link you use after most letters. Many people write the o, lift, and write the e as a separate letter; keep the pen down and let the connector slide to the baseline before looping the e.

These are the slips that show up most often with this name. Check your own lines against the list before you move on.

• Making the h and l loops different heights.
• Closing the C into a circle.
• Leaving a gap between the o and the e.
• Writing the e with no loop, so it looks like a c.

Write hl ten times on one line to train the pair of tall loops. Then write oe ten times, focusing on the downward join. Finally write the whole name ten times. If you also write Charlotte, notice that both names start with C and h, so you can warm up for one by writing the other; try Charlotte after this. A third pass at half size will show whether the loops stay open.

The one-page PDF has the name once in black as a model, two grey rows to trace, a blank ruled row and the short forms of Chloe to trace underneath. It prints on Letter or A4. For another name or a full class set, use the worksheet generator, and for blank ruled paper see cursive lined paper.

Chlo is a short form that keeps the C, h, l and o and drops the e. Chloey adds a y with a tail below the line. Chlo is a good way to practise the tall h and l pair without the o to e dive.

Chloe is a Greek name usually glossed as green shoot or young green growth, and it was used as an epithet of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. It appears in the pastoral romance Daphnis and Chloe, an ancient Greek novel that is generally dated to the second or third century CE. In English it spread widely as a given name much later.

The pronunciation is KLOH-ee, two syllables, which is why the name ends with a full small e rather than a trailing flick.