Name in Japanese L Lisa

Lisa in Japanese

リサ
Katakana
リサ
Hiragana
りさ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Risa

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

How Lisa sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ri
Sa

Full reading: Risa

Do more with Lisa in Japanese

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

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 Lisa becomes リサ 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.