Name in Japanese J Josiah

Josiah in Japanese

ジョサイア
Katakana
ジョサイア
Hiragana
じょさいあ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Josaia

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

How Josiah sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ジョ Jo
Sa
I
A

Full reading: Josaia

Do more with Josiah in Japanese

Why Josiah 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, Josiah appears as ジョサイア. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ジョサイア and immediately reads it by its sound, Josaia.

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 Josiah becomes ジョサイア 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.