Blackburn in Japanese Katakana

Tips for writing Blackburn in katakana

• ー is the long-vowel mark: it stretches the sound before it. In vertical writing it turns into a vertical line.
• The small ッ is a short pause that doubles the next consonant. Write it half size; a full-size ツ would be read "tsu".
• ソ (so) and ン (n) look alike. In ソ the long stroke falls from the top right; in ン it rises from the bottom left.
• Japanese has a single sound for English L and R, so both are written with the ラ-row (ra, ri, ru, re, ro).
• Katakana is written left to right like English, or top to bottom in vertical text. Keep every character the same size except the small ones.

Blackburn on Japanese forms

Example full name: John Blackburn → ジョン・ブラックバーン (Western order, names separated by ・).

Most Japanese forms put the family name first: ブラックバーン ジョン. In a フリガナ (furigana) field write it in katakana; if the field says ふりがな use hiragana (ぶらっくばーん じょん); some bank and card forms ask for half-width katakana (ﾌﾞﾗｯｸﾊﾞｰﾝ ｼﾞｮﾝ).

Japan has no official katakana spelling for foreign names. Once you use a spelling for a bank account, phone contract or employer, keep using the same one so your records match.

FAQ

How do you write Blackburn in Japanese?

Blackburn is usually written ブラックバーン (burakkubān) in katakana, the script Japanese uses for foreign names. In hiragana it is ぶらっくばーん.

Is there a kanji for Blackburn?

No. Foreign names have no official kanji; they are written in katakana. Kanji versions offered online (ateji) are chosen only for sound and look, and their "meanings" are made up, so this site does not provide them.