Name in Japanese M Mathew

Mathew in Japanese

マシュー
Katakana
マシュー
Hiragana
ましゅー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Mashū

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

How Mathew sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ma
シュー Shū

Full reading: Mashū

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Why Mathew 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, Mathew appears as マシュー. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees マシュー and immediately reads it by its sound, Mashū.

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 Mathew becomes マシュー 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.