Name in Japanese J Johanna

Johanna in Japanese

ヨハンナ
Katakana
ヨハンナ
Hiragana
よはんな
Romaji (Hepburn)
Yohanna

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

How Johanna sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Yo
Ha
N
Na

Full reading: Yohanna

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Why Johanna 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, Johanna appears as ヨハンナ. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ヨハンナ and immediately reads it by its sound, Yohanna.

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 Johanna becomes ヨハンナ 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.