Name in Japanese P Perry

Perry in Japanese

ペリー
Katakana
ペリー
Hiragana
ぺりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Perī

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

How Perry sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Pe
リー

Full reading: Perī

Do more with Perry in Japanese

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

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 Perry becomes ペリー 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.