Name in Japanese R Rob

Rob in Japanese

ロブ
Katakana
ロブ
Hiragana
ろぶ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Robu

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

How Rob sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ro
Bu

Full reading: Robu

Do more with Rob in Japanese

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

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 Rob becomes ロブ 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.