Name in Japanese E Ellis

Ellis in Japanese

エリス
Katakana
エリス
Hiragana
えりす
Romaji (Hepburn)
Erisu

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

How Ellis sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

E
Ri
Su

Full reading: Erisu

Do more with Ellis in Japanese

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

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 Ellis becomes エリス 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.