Name in Japanese A Alfie

Alfie in Japanese

アルフィー
Katakana
アルフィー
Hiragana
あるふぃー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Arufī

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

How Alfie sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

A
Ru
フィー

Full reading: Arufī

Do more with Alfie in Japanese

Why Alfie 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, Alfie appears as アルフィー. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees アルフィー and immediately reads it by its sound, Arufī.

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 Alfie becomes アルフィー 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.