Name in Japanese G Gustavo

Gustavo in Japanese

グスタボ
Katakana
グスタボ
Hiragana
ぐすたぼ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Gusutabo

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

How Gustavo sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Gu
Su
Ta
Bo

Full reading: Gusutabo

Do more with Gustavo in Japanese

Why Gustavo 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, Gustavo appears as グスタボ. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees グスタボ and immediately reads it by its sound, Gusutabo.

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 Gustavo becomes グスタボ 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.