Name in Japanese M Mason

Mason in Japanese

メイソン
Katakana
メイソン
Hiragana
めいそん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Meison

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

How Mason sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Me
I
So
N

Full reading: Meison

Do more with Mason in Japanese

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

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 Mason becomes メイソン 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.