William
ウィリアム
Wiriamu
How It Is Said
- ウィwi
- リri
- アa
- ムmu
Wiriamu: four 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
- The double ll is one sound in English, so katakana writes it once: ウィリアム.
- Japanese has no l. It uses its one sound between l and r, a light tap of the tongue, written ラ リ ル レ ロ: リ (ri).
- Japanese syllables end in a vowel or in ン, so the final m takes a light vowel: ム (mu).
- A small kana joins the one before it into one beat: ウィ (wi).
William Adams, the English navigator who served Tokugawa Ieyasu from 1600, is remembered in Japan by the name he was given there: 三浦按針 (Miura Anjin).
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type wiriamu, 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 ウィリアム 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
