Daan
ダーン
Dān
How It Is Said
- ダda
- ーa
- ンn
Dān: three beats, each about the same length. Japanese has no strong stress, so the name is said evenly, beat by beat.
What Happens to the Sounds
- Dutch writes a long vowel with two letters; Japanese writes it with ー: ダー (dā).
- ン is a humming n, and it counts as a beat of its own.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type da-nn (the - key gives the bar ー and nn gives ン), then press F7 on Windows or Control+K on a Mac to turn it into katakana. On a phone, type the same letters with the Japanese keyboard and choose ダーン among the suggestions.
The Same Name in Other Languages
Why Katakana
In Japan, names from abroad are written in katakana, the script for words from other languages. Kanji versions of Western names are mostly invented, and a Japanese reader often sees odd meanings in them; the katakana is what a Japanese person would really write. More on katakana and names
