Name in Japanese A Alison

Alison in Japanese

アリソン
Katakana
アリソン
Hiragana
ありそん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Arison

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

How Alison sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

A
Ri
So
N

Full reading: Arison

Do more with Alison in Japanese

Why Alison 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, Alison appears as アリソン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees アリソン and immediately reads it by its sound, Arison.

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 Alison becomes アリソン 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.