Name in Japanese K Kelvin

Kelvin in Japanese

ケルビン
Katakana
ケルビン
Hiragana
けるびん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Kerubin

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

How Kelvin sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ke
Ru
Bi
N

Full reading: Kerubin

Do more with Kelvin in Japanese

Why Kelvin 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, Kelvin appears as ケルビン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ケルビン and immediately reads it by its sound, Kerubin.

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 Kelvin becomes ケルビン 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.