Name in Japanese C Charles

Charles in Japanese

チャールズ
Katakana
チャールズ
Hiragana
ちゃーるず
Romaji (Hepburn)
Chāruzu

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

How Charles sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

チャー Chā
Ru
Zu

Full reading: Chāruzu

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Why Charles 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, Charles appears as チャールズ. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees チャールズ and immediately reads it by its sound, Chāruzu.

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 Charles becomes チャールズ 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.