Name in Japanese D Delila

Delila in Japanese

デリラ
Katakana
デリラ
Hiragana
でりら
Romaji (Hepburn)
Derira

This is the common, natural katakana for Delila. Katakana approximates English sounds, so a slightly different spelling can also be valid — treat this as a reliable default, not the single "correct" answer.

How Delila sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

De
Ri
Ra

Full reading: Derira

Do more with Delila in Japanese

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

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 Delila becomes デリラ 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.