Name in Japanese H Harvey

Harvey in Japanese

ハービー
Katakana
ハービー
Hiragana
はーびー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Hābī

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

How Harvey sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ハー
ビー

Full reading: Hābī

Do more with Harvey in Japanese

Why Harvey 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, Harvey appears as ハービー. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ハービー and immediately reads it by its sound, Hābī.

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 Harvey becomes ハービー 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.