Name in Japanese E Elsie

Elsie in Japanese

エルシー
Katakana
エルシー
Hiragana
えるしー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Erushī

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

How Elsie sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

E
Ru
シー Shī

Full reading: Erushī

Do more with Elsie in Japanese

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

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 Elsie becomes エルシー 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.