Name in Japanese L Larry

Larry in Japanese

ラリー
Katakana
ラリー
Hiragana
らりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Rarī

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

How Larry sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ra
リー

Full reading: Rarī

Do more with Larry in Japanese

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

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 Larry becomes ラリー 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.