Name in Japanese L Louise

Louise in Japanese

ルイーズ
Katakana
ルイーズ
Hiragana
るいーず
Romaji (Hepburn)
Ruīzu

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

How Louise sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ru
イー Ī
Zu

Full reading: Ruīzu

Do more with Louise in Japanese

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

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 Louise becomes ルイーズ 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.