Name in Japanese R Robyn

Robyn in Japanese

ロビン
Katakana
ロビン
Hiragana
ろびん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Robin

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

How Robyn sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ro
Bi
N

Full reading: Robin

Do more with Robyn in Japanese

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

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 Robyn becomes ロビン 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.