Name in Japanese Z Zoie

Zoie in Japanese

ゾーイ
Katakana
ゾーイ
Hiragana
ぞーい
Romaji (Hepburn)
Zōi

This is the common, natural katakana for Zoie. Katakana approximates English sounds, so a slightly different spelling can also be valid — treat this as a reliable default, not the single "correct" answer.

How Zoie sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ゾー
I

Full reading: Zōi

Do more with Zoie in Japanese

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

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 Zoie becomes ゾーイ 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.