Name in Japanese X Xavier

Xavier in Japanese

ザビエル
Katakana
ザビエル
Hiragana
ざびえる
Romaji (Hepburn)
Zabieru

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

How Xavier sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

Za
Bi
E
Ru

Full reading: Zabieru

Do more with Xavier in Japanese

Why Xavier 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, Xavier appears as ザビエル. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ザビエル and immediately reads it by its sound, Zabieru.

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 Xavier becomes ザビエル 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.