Name in Japanese C Claire

Claire in Japanese

クレア
Katakana
クレア
Hiragana
くれあ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Kurea

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

How Claire sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ku
Re
A

Full reading: Kurea

Do more with Claire in Japanese

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

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 Claire becomes クレア 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.