Hannah

[SquishySquids]

Hi, I am very new to Japanese still. My friend Hannah want to write her name in Japanese. I heard that with foreign names you usually write it in katakana.

So Hana in katakana would be ハナ, right?
But I got multiple results that said ハンナ is Hannah too.
ハンナ is Hanna then, if I am not mistaken.

Since her name is Hannah with two Ns she would use the latter -- correct?

[adelholtz_499460]

Hi

hm let me see.. i would go with ハナ cause its read like ha-na

ハンナ
or
ハッナ
are pronounced like ha-n-na

Which will give a different pronounciation of the name.
So i would use ハナ cause it sounds much more natural to me.

Someone correct me if im wrong pls, so that im not spreading false information ^^

[MicahT]

Agreed that ハナ sounds better! Whether or not that's the most accurate reading is something I don't know though.

[thegooseking]

みなさん,

I tend to go with ハンナ (not ハッナ - the ッ doesn't work for doubling 'n' sounds) for the simple reason that ハナ already is a Japanese name, so ハンナ is more clearly non-Japanese. But it depends what you want to go for, I guess.

If I'm talking to someone about ハンナという友達 - my friend Hannah - I don't want them assuming I'm talking about a Japanese person when I'm actually talking about a Scottish person.

小狼

[community.japanese]

Hannah san,

Thank you for the post.
I agree with 小狼さん.
Japanese people are familiar with some common names like celebrities. Then almost all Japanese people think Michael is マイケル and Mary isメアリー.
However, other names are up to you.
If you or your friend like ハナ, you can use it.
If you like ハンナ, you can use it.

Adelholtz san, Micah T san and 小狼さん、
Thank you very much for your suggestions.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com