Name in Japanese A Anna

Anna in Japanese

アンナ
Katakana
アンナ
Hiragana
あんな
Romaji (Hepburn)
Anna

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

How Anna sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

A
N
Na

Full reading: Anna

Do more with Anna in Japanese

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

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 Anna becomes アンナ 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.