Name in Japanese S Susan

Susan in Japanese

スーザン
Katakana
スーザン
Hiragana
すーざん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Sūzan

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

How Susan sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

スー
Za
N

Full reading: Sūzan

Do more with Susan in Japanese

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

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 Susan becomes スーザン 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.