Name in Japanese Z Zola

Zola in Japanese

ゾーラ
Katakana
ゾーラ
Hiragana
ぞーら
Romaji (Hepburn)
Zōra

This is the common, natural katakana for Zola. 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 Zola sounds in Japanese

Read it one katakana at a time:

ゾー
Ra

Full reading: Zōra

Do more with Zola in Japanese

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

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 Zola becomes ゾーラ 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.