Name in Japanese K Kevin

Kevin in Japanese

ケビン
Katakana
ケビン
Hiragana
けびん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Kebin

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

How Kevin sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ke
Bi
N

Full reading: Kebin

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

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 Kevin becomes ケビン 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.