Name in Japanese H Harrison

Harrison in Japanese

ハリソン
Katakana
ハリソン
Hiragana
はりそん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Harison

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

How Harrison sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ha
Ri
So
N

Full reading: Harison

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Why Harrison 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, Harrison appears as ハリソン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ハリソン and immediately reads it by its sound, Harison.

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 Harrison becomes ハリソン 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.