How to build your name with LEGO® bricks

Designing a name on screen takes a minute. Turning it into a build that stands on a shelf and survives being carried around is the part with the decisions in it — which pieces to buy, how to keep the letters readable, how to mount it. That's what this guide covers.

If you haven't made the design yet, the LEGO name generator gives you the preview and the piece inventory this guide refers to.

1. Flat mosaic or standing letters?

This is the first real decision, and it changes everything downstream. A flat mosaic lies on the baseplate one plate thick, seen from above: it frames cleanly, hangs on a door and travels without falling apart. Standing 3D letters are two studs deep and stack seven brick layers high, so they hold themselves up, read from both sides of a table and look far bigger for the same name.

Flat is easier and cheaper. Standing costs about three-quarters more pieces for the same name, and it needs the joints staggered properly or the letters bow. If it's going on a wall, go flat; if it's going on a table or a shelf, go standing.

2. Work out how many pieces you need

Piece count grows with the name length and, sharply, with the size you pick. A four-letter name at medium size lands between 29 and 36 plates as a flat mosaic, or 51 to 60 bricks as standing letters. Go up to large and standing letters double almost exactly, while flat mosaics more than double.

Don't estimate by eye — the count is not proportional to the number of letters. An M or a W costs a bit over twice what an I or an L does, so two names of the same length can differ by a quarter. Each name page lists the figure letter by letter.

3. What to buy, and what you already have

The layouts deliberately stick to pieces sold loose, so a name is usually buildable from a mixed collection:

Flat mosaics need plate bands 1 and 2 studs wide — 2×2, 2×4, 2×8 and 2×10 do most of the work.
Standing letters need 2×N bricks, mostly 2×2, with 2×1, 2×3, 2×4 and 2×6 closing the runs.
Baseplates at 32×16 studs, about 25.6×12.8 cm each. A long name needs two or three.

One size dominates hard — in a flat mosaic the 2×2 plates alone are around three-quarters of the whole build — so that's the one to buy spare. Running out of 2×2 with three letters to go is the classic way to stall a build.

4. Prepare the baseplate

Lay the baseplates out and dry-fit the letter positions before pressing anything home. Leave the one-stud gap between letters that the preview shows: closer and the name turns into a block of colour, wider and it stops reading as one word. If the name spans several baseplates, decide where it breaks — between words or between letters, never mid-letter.

5. Build letter by letter

Work one letter at a time and finish it before starting the next; it's much easier to fix a misplaced piece while its neighbours are still empty.

For standing letters, stagger the joints between layers the way a bricklayer does: no vertical seam should run through two layers in a row. Stack the seams and the letter splits along that line the first time you pick it up. This is the single thing that separates letters that stand from letters that sag.

You don't have to keep track of it yourself: the generator downloads building instructions for your name as a PDF, with the joints already staggered and one step per layer.

6. Colour and contrast

Readability comes from contrast with the background, not from the number of colours. A name in mixed brights on a grey or white baseplate reads from across the room; the same name on a red baseplate with red letters in it disappears.

If you're short on a colour, substitute freely — the letter shape carries the name, not the palette. One colour per letter makes a long name easier to read at a distance; mixing colours within each letter looks more like a pile of bricks, which is sometimes exactly the point.

7. Mounting and displaying it

Framed — a flat mosaic fits a box frame with the baseplate as the mount. Deep enough that the glass doesn't press the studs.
On a door — flat, on its baseplate, hung from the plate rather than glued to it, so it comes off intact.
On a shelf — standing letters need only their own baseplate, and stay put if the shelf is level.
Carried around — flat travels much better. Standing letters survive a table but not a bag.

8. Common mistakes

Choosing the size before measuring the space. Large letters are 12 cm each; a six-letter name is most of a metre.
Buying by total count instead of by piece size. Two hundred assorted plates won't build a name that needs a hundred 2×2s.
Stacked seams in standing letters. See step 5 — it's the one mistake you can't fix afterwards.
Skipping the letter gaps to save baseplate. It costs you legibility, which was the whole point.

9. Creative ideas for brick letters

Bedroom door sign with a name in LEGO bricks.
Party decoration for a building-themed birthday.
Personalized gift built by the family from a shared inventory.
School project on typography and modular construction.
Initials on a desk or a bookshelf, standing, in a single colour.

Building instructions as a PDF

The nine steps above work for any name. For yours specifically, the generator puts together building instructions as a PDF you can print and keep next to you while you build, the way the booklet in a LEGO box works.

A parts list — every piece with its colour, its quantity and the official LEGO part number (design ID), ready to search on Pick a Brick or BrickLink.
One step per layer for standing letters, and one step per letter for the flat mosaic.
Everything already built shown in grey, with the new pieces of each step in full colour, so you never lose your place.
The real size of the finished build in centimetres, before you buy anything.

It's free, it asks for no email and it is generated in your own browser: type your name into the generator and press the download instructions button under the parts list.

LEGO® trademark notice

LEGO® is a trademark of LEGO Juris A/S. Brick My Name is an independent project and is not linked to The LEGO Group. Patterns shown are brick-style representations for creative purposes.

Popular name examples

Browse ready-made brick-letter designs, then customize colors and size in the LEGO name generator.

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