Name in Japanese M Molly

Molly in Japanese

モリー
Katakana
モリー
Hiragana
もりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Morī

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

How Molly sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Mo
リー

Full reading: Morī

Do more with Molly in Japanese

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

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 Molly becomes モリー 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.