Name in Japanese H Henry

Henry in Japanese

ヘンリー
Katakana
ヘンリー
Hiragana
へんりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Henrī

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

How Henry sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

He
N
リー

Full reading: Henrī

Do more with Henry in Japanese

Why Henry 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, Henry appears as ヘンリー. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ヘンリー and immediately reads it by its sound, Henrī.

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 Henry becomes ヘンリー 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.