Name in Japanese L Leon

Leon in Japanese

レオン
Katakana
レオン
Hiragana
れおん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Reon

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

How Leon sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Re
O
N

Full reading: Reon

Do more with Leon in Japanese

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

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 Leon becomes レオン 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.