Name in Japanese E Ellen

Ellen in Japanese

エレン
Katakana
エレン
Hiragana
えれん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Eren

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

How Ellen sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

E
Re
N

Full reading: Eren

Do more with Ellen in Japanese

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

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 Ellen becomes エレン 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.