Name in Japanese J Jane

Jane in Japanese

ジェーン
Katakana
ジェーン
Hiragana
じぇーん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Jēn

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

How Jane sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ジェー
N

Full reading: Jēn

Do more with Jane in Japanese

Why Jane 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, Jane appears as ジェーン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ジェーン and immediately reads it by its sound, Jēn.

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 Jane becomes ジェーン 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.