Name in Japanese L Leonard

Leonard in Japanese

レナード
Katakana
レナード
Hiragana
れなーど
Romaji (Hepburn)
Renādo

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

How Leonard sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Re
ナー
Do

Full reading: Renādo

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

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 Leonard becomes レナード 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.