Name in Japanese A Allan

Allan in Japanese

アラン
Katakana
アラン
Hiragana
あらん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Aran

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

How Allan sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

A
Ra
N

Full reading: Aran

Do more with Allan in Japanese

Why Allan 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, Allan appears as アラン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees アラン and immediately reads it by its sound, Aran.

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 Allan becomes アラン 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.