Name in Japanese S Steven

Steven in Japanese

スティーブン
Katakana
スティーブン
Hiragana
すてぃーぶん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Sutībun

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

How Steven sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Su
ティー
Bu
N

Full reading: Sutībun

Do more with Steven in Japanese

Why Steven 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, Steven appears as スティーブン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees スティーブン and immediately reads it by its sound, Sutībun.

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 Steven becomes スティーブン 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.