Name in Japanese A Aurora

Aurora in Japanese

オーロラ
Katakana
オーロラ
Hiragana
おーろら
Romaji (Hepburn)
Ōrora

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

How Aurora sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

オー Ō
Ro
Ra

Full reading: Ōrora

Do more with Aurora in Japanese

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

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 Aurora becomes オーロラ 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.