Name in Japanese L Leah

Leah in Japanese

リア
Katakana
リア
Hiragana
りあ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Ria

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

How Leah sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ri
A

Full reading: Ria

Do more with Leah in Japanese

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

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 Leah becomes リア 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.