Name in Japanese L Luke

Luke in Japanese

ルーク
Katakana
ルーク
Hiragana
るーく
Romaji (Hepburn)
Rūku

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

How Luke sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ルー
Ku

Full reading: Rūku

Do more with Luke in Japanese

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

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 Luke becomes ルーク 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.