Name in Japanese A Alana

Alana in Japanese

アラナ
Katakana
アラナ
Hiragana
あらな
Romaji (Hepburn)
Arana

This is the established spelling used for Alana in Japanese dictionaries, books and media.

How Alana sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

A
Ra
Na

Full reading: Arana

Do more with Alana in Japanese

Why Alana is written in katakana

In Japanese, foreign names are written in katakana — the angular script reserved for words borrowed from other languages. So on a form, a name tag, a delivery slip or a news article in Japan, Alana appears as アラナ. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees アラナ and immediately reads it by its sound, Arana.

Katakana is a syllabary, so English sounds are fitted to the nearest Japanese syllables and every consonant (except ん) is followed by a vowel. That is why Alana becomes アラナ rather than a letter-for-letter copy. More than one katakana spelling can be reasonable for the same name, which is why we flag whether a spelling is a long-established one or a natural default.