Name in Japanese Z Zoltan

Zoltan in Japanese

ゾルタン
Katakana
ゾルタン
Hiragana
ぞるたん
Romaji (Hepburn)
Zorutan

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

Read it one katakana at a time:

Zo
Ru
Ta
N

Full reading: Zorutan

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Why Zoltan 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, Zoltan appears as ゾルタン. This is the correct and respectful way a non-Japanese name is represented; it is not a kanji "translation". A Japanese reader sees ゾルタン and immediately reads it by its sound, Zorutan.

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 Zoltan becomes ゾルタン 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.