Pronunciation Guide

Japanese translates names by how they sound. When you search your name, each translation shows a pronunciation — something like day-na for Dayna or mie-kel for Michael. This guide explains how to read it.

Reading the Notation

A hyphen - marks a syllable boundary. The name Elena is three syllables: e-le-na.

An uppercase vowel shows where the stress falls. In e-lE-na, the emphasis is on the second syllable. In e-le-na, the pronunciation is unstressed and neutral.

Vowels

Consonants

The Japanese column shows the romaji — how the Japanese characters sound when read aloud.

Going Deeper

For linguists, language enthusiasts, and those who want the full picture.

The "a" Sound

The symbol a covers two English vowel sounds: the short "a" in "at" and the open "a" in "spa." Both map to the same Japanese vowel, so we use a single symbol.

The ae Symbol

The ae symbol appears only after K or G:

Japanese has distinct syllables きゃ (kya) and ぎゃ (gya) that better approximate the English "a" sound after K and G. For other consonants, the standard a symbol is used because Japanese has no equivalent distinction.

Sounds That Cross Languages

Some English sounds have no direct equivalent in Japanese:

These approximations follow established conventions for rendering foreign sounds in Japanese.

The uw Sound

The symbol uw represents the vowel in "push," "put," and "book" — shorter and more relaxed than the oo in "boot."

The i Sound

The symbol i covers both the short "i" in "sit" and the long "ee" in "ski." Both map to the same Japanese い (i).

Affricates

Two combined sounds appear in names from various languages:

• ts: as in "cats" or "pizza" — common in German and Slavic names
• dz: as in "adze" — appears in some Eastern European names

Questions about the pronunciation of your name? Contact us at tim@takase.com.