Name in Japanese L Luis

Luis in Japanese

ルイス
Katakana
ルイス
Hiragana
るいす
Romaji (Hepburn)
Ruisu

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

How Luis sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ru
I
Su

Full reading: Ruisu

Do more with Luis in Japanese

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

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 Luis becomes ルイス 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.