Your name in Japanese

How the converter works

Japanese writes foreign names in katakana. The tool does not swap letters one by one. It works out how your name sounds in the language you pick, then writes the closest sounds Japanese can make.

The writing rules follow the Japanese Cabinet notice of 1991 on how to write loanwords. Japanese has no way to write some sounds, such as a trailing consonant, so extra vowels appear. That is why a short name can turn into a longer string of katakana.

Pick the language your name is said in. The same letters sound different in Spanish, English, Portuguese and Italian, and the result changes with them.

Worked examples

• Jorge (Spanish) → ホルヘ horuhe
• George (English) → ジョージ jōji
• María (Spanish) → マリア maria
• José (Spanish) → ホセ hose

Questions

Why is Jorge not ジョージ?

The tool follows the sound, not the spelling. In Spanish, the J in Jorge is a breathy h-like sound, so with Spanish selected you get ホルヘ. ジョージ is how the English name George sounds, and with English selected that name gives ジョージ.

Why does the same name come out differently by language?

Letters carry different sounds in each language. The G in a Spanish name and the G in an English one are not the same sound, so the tool asks which one you mean.

Will it match how a famous person is written?

Not always. Well-known people often have a spelling that newspapers and dictionaries settled on years ago, even when it does not follow the rules. The tool follows the sound rules, so it can differ from that established form.

Is my name sent anywhere?

No. The conversion runs in your browser.