Name in Japanese B Brad

Brad in Japanese

ブラッド
Katakana
ブラッド
Hiragana
ぶらっど
Romaji (Hepburn)
Buraddo

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

How Brad sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Bu
Ra
ッド Ddo

Full reading: Buraddo

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

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 Brad becomes ブラッド 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.