Name in Japanese M Mabel

Mabel in Japanese

メイベル
Katakana
メイベル
Hiragana
めいべる
Romaji (Hepburn)
Meiberu

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

How Mabel sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Me
I
Be
Ru

Full reading: Meiberu

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

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 Mabel becomes メイベル 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.