Name in Japanese K Khalil

Khalil in Japanese

カリル
Katakana
カリル
Hiragana
かりる
Romaji (Hepburn)
Kariru

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

How Khalil sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ka
Ri
Ru

Full reading: Kariru

Do more with Khalil in Japanese

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

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 Khalil becomes カリル 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.