Hannah 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.

Hannah is written with 6 letters: H, a, n, n, a, h. 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 H

The capital H is the hardest part of the name. It is written as two tall strokes joined by a crossbar, and the crossbar is the part that exits toward the a. Lift for the second stem if your hand needs it, then draw the crossbar from left to right at the middle line and carry on into the a. Keep the two stems about the same height and slightly apart; a squeezed H looks like an N.

The mirror: H a n n a h

Because the name is a palindrome the first and last halves should feel the same. After the H, you write a, n, n, a and then a lowercase h. The lowercase h is a tall loop and a single hump, and it is the only tall letter apart from the capital. Compare the two ends: the capital H is twice as big, but the final h should still look like a small cousin of it.

nn: two humps side by side

Two n letters in a row are only a pair of humps, but the pen has to stay at the baseline between them. The humps should be the same width and height. If you rush, the second n gets taller than the first or the gap between them closes. Practise the pair on a line of its own until you can write ten without a lift.

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

• Drawing the H stems at different heights.
• Making the crossbar too low, so the join to the a looks forced.
• Writing the nn as one wide arch.
• Making the final h as large as the capital. It is a lowercase letter.

Because the name is a palindrome, you can practise it from both ends. Write ha five times, then ah five times, then nn five times. Then join them as Hannah. The capital H deserves its own page: write it ten times at twice the line height, comparing it each time with the model. Finally check that the last h does not look larger than the n humps next to it.

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 Hannah 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.

Hanna drops the final h and so loses the palindrome, while Hannie and Annie are common pet forms. Annie has a capital A, two n humps and a short ie ending, which makes it a good compare-and-contrast exercise with the full name.

Hannah is the English form of a Hebrew name usually glossed as favor or grace, which is also what the Latin-derived name Grace means. In the Hebrew Bible Hannah is the mother of Samuel, and the name has been used in English-speaking countries for centuries.

Because the letters are the same read backward, Hannah is often listed with Ava, Anna and Eve as a palindromic name. That is a fun feature for handwriting, because it lets you check each half against the other.