John
ジョン
Jon
How It Is Said
- ジョjo
- ンn
Jon: two 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
- A small kana joins the one before it into one beat: ジョ (jo).
- ン is a humming n, and it counts as a beat of its own.
Nakahama Manjirō, a young fisherman shipwrecked in 1841 who grew up in America and came home to Japan, is remembered as ジョン万次郎 (Jon Manjirō).
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type jonn (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 ジョン 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
