Name in Japanese P Penelope

Penelope in Japanese

ペネロペ
Katakana
ペネロペ
Hiragana
ぺねろぺ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Penerope

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

How Penelope sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Pe
Ne
Ro
Pe

Full reading: Penerope

Do more with Penelope in Japanese

Why Penelope 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, Penelope appears as ペネロペ. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ペネロペ and immediately reads it by its sound, Penerope.

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 Penelope becomes ペネロペ 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.