Name in Japanese J Jean

Jean in Japanese

ジーン
Katakana
ジーン
Hiragana
じーん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Jīn

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

How Jean sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ジー
N

Full reading: Jīn

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

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 Jean becomes ジーン 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.