Name in Japanese E Elsa

Elsa in Japanese

エルサ
Katakana
エルサ
Hiragana
えるさ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Erusa

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

How Elsa sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

E
Ru
Sa

Full reading: Erusa

Do more with Elsa in Japanese

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

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 Elsa becomes エルサ 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.