Name in Japanese R Ryan

Ryan in Japanese

ライアン
Katakana
ライアン
Hiragana
らいあん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Raian

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

How Ryan sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Ra
I
A
N

Full reading: Raian

Do more with Ryan in Japanese

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

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 Ryan becomes ライアン 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.