Name in Japanese M Marvin

Marvin in Japanese

マービン
Katakana
マービン
Hiragana
まーびん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Mābin

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

How Marvin sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

マー
Bi
N

Full reading: Mābin

Do more with Marvin in Japanese

Why Marvin 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, Marvin appears as マービン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees マービン and immediately reads it by its sound, Mābin.

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 Marvin becomes マービン 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.