Name in Japanese L Louis

Louis in Japanese

ルイ
Katakana
ルイ
Hiragana
るい
Romaji (Hepburn)
Rui

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

How Louis sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ru
I

Full reading: Rui

Do more with Louis in Japanese

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

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 Louis becomes ルイ 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.