Name in Japanese L Louisa

Louisa in Japanese

ルイーザ
Katakana
ルイーザ
Hiragana
るいーざ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Ruīza

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

How Louisa sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ru
イー Ī
Za

Full reading: Ruīza

Do more with Louisa in Japanese

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

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 Louisa becomes ルイーザ 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.