English to Katakana Converter

English words are converted to katakana by breaking them into syllables and matching each syllable to the closest Japanese sound. Japanese has fewer distinct sounds than English, so some approximations are needed. For example, 'coffee' becomes コーヒー (ko-hi-) and 'computer' becomes コンピューター (konpyu-ta-). Our converter handles this automatically.

Yes, English names are commonly written in katakana in Japan. The name is transliterated phonetically — 'John' becomes ジョン (jon), 'Mary' becomes メアリー (meari-), and 'David' becomes デイビッド (deibiddo). Enter your name in the converter above to see its katakana version.

The converter provides standard katakana transliterations following Japanese phonetic rules. Most common words and names produce well-established katakana forms. However, some English sounds (like 'th', 'v', and 'l') do not exist in Japanese and are approximated with the closest available sounds.

Japanese syllables always end in a vowel sound (except ん/n). When English words end in consonants, Japanese adds a vowel. For example, 'cat' becomes キャット (kyatto) with an extra 'o' sound, and 'milk' becomes ミルク (miruku) with an extra 'u' sound. The long dash (ー) extends the preceding vowel, as in コーヒー (ko-hi-).

Romaji is the Roman alphabet representation of Japanese sounds (like 'sa' or 'to'), while katakana is the actual Japanese script (サ or ト). Romaji is used to help English speakers read Japanese pronunciation. Katakana is used in actual Japanese writing for foreign words and names.