Name in Japanese L Leroy

Leroy in Japanese

リロイ
Katakana
リロイ
Hiragana
りろい
Romaji (Hepburn)
Riroi

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

How Leroy sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ri
Ro
I

Full reading: Riroi

Do more with Leroy in Japanese

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

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 Leroy becomes リロイ 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.