Name in Japanese M Maureen

Maureen in Japanese

モーリーン
Katakana
モーリーン
Hiragana
もーりーん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Mōrīn

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

How Maureen sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

モー
リー
N

Full reading: Mōrīn

Do more with Maureen in Japanese

Why Maureen 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, Maureen appears as モーリーン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees モーリーン and immediately reads it by its sound, Mōrīn.

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 Maureen becomes モーリーン 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.