Name in Japanese L Leslie

Leslie in Japanese

レスリー
Katakana
レスリー
Hiragana
れすりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Resurī

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

How Leslie sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Re
Su
リー

Full reading: Resurī

Do more with Leslie in Japanese

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

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 Leslie becomes レスリー 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.