Name in Japanese G Gillian

Gillian in Japanese

ジリアン
Katakana
ジリアン
Hiragana
じりあん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Jirian

This is the common, natural katakana for Gillian. 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 Gillian sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ji
Ri
A
N

Full reading: Jirian

Do more with Gillian in Japanese

Why Gillian 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, Gillian appears as ジリアン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ジリアン and immediately reads it by its sound, Jirian.

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 Gillian becomes ジリアン 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.