Name in Japanese H Homer

Homer in Japanese

ホーマー
Katakana
ホーマー
Hiragana
ほーまー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Hōmā

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

How Homer sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ホー
マー

Full reading: Hōmā

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Why Homer 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, Homer appears as ホーマー. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ホーマー and immediately reads it by its sound, Hōmā.

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 Homer becomes ホーマー 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.