Name in Japanese J Jacob

Jacob in Japanese

ジェイコブ
Katakana
ジェイコブ
Hiragana
じぇいこぶ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Jeikobu

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

How Jacob sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ジェ Je
I
Ko
Bu

Full reading: Jeikobu

Do more with Jacob in Japanese

Why Jacob 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, Jacob appears as ジェイコブ. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ジェイコブ and immediately reads it by its sound, Jeikobu.

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 Jacob becomes ジェイコブ 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.