Name in Japanese T Theresa

Theresa in Japanese

テレサ
Katakana
テレサ
Hiragana
てれさ
Romaji (Hepburn)
Teresa

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

How Theresa sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Te
Re
Sa

Full reading: Teresa

Do more with Theresa in Japanese

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

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 Theresa becomes テレサ 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.