Name in Japanese J Jolene

Jolene in Japanese

ジョリーン
Katakana
ジョリーン
Hiragana
じょりーん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Jorīn

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

How Jolene sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ジョ Jo
リー
N

Full reading: Jorīn

Do more with Jolene in Japanese

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

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 Jolene becomes ジョリーン 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.