Name in Japanese L Lillie

Lillie in Japanese

リリー
Katakana
リリー
Hiragana
りりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Rirī

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

How Lillie sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ri
リー

Full reading: Rirī

Do more with Lillie in Japanese

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

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 Lillie becomes リリー 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.