Name in Japanese K Kira

Kira in Japanese

キーラ
Katakana
キーラ
Hiragana
きーら
Romaji (Hepburn)
Kīra

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

How Kira sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

キー
Ra

Full reading: Kīra

Do more with Kira in Japanese

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

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 Kira becomes キーラ 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.