Name in Japanese K Keith

Keith in Japanese

キース
Katakana
キース
Hiragana
きーす
Romaji (Hepburn)
Kīsu

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

How Keith sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

キー
Su

Full reading: Kīsu

Do more with Keith in Japanese

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

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 Keith becomes キース 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.