Name in Japanese L Lester

Lester in Japanese

レスター
Katakana
レスター
Hiragana
れすたー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Resutā

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

How Lester sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Re
Su
ター

Full reading: Resutā

Do more with Lester in Japanese

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

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 Lester becomes レスター 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.