Name in Japanese T Terry

Terry in Japanese

テリー
Katakana
テリー
Hiragana
てりー
Romaji (Hepburn)
Terī

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

How Terry sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Te
リー

Full reading: Terī

Do more with Terry in Japanese

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

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 Terry becomes テリー 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.