Name in Japanese Z Zeke

Zeke in Japanese

ジーク
Katakana
ジーク
Hiragana
じーく
Romaji (Hepburn)
Jīku

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

How Zeke sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ジー
Ku

Full reading: Jīku

Do more with Zeke in Japanese

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

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 Zeke becomes ジーク 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.