Melissa in Japanese Katakana

Tips for writing Melissa in katakana

• The small ッ is a short pause that doubles the next consonant. Write it half size; a full-size ツ would be read "tsu".
• 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.

Melissa on Japanese forms

Example full name: Melissa Smith → メリッサ・スミス (Western order, names separated by ・).

Most Japanese forms put the family name first: スミス メリッサ. In a フリガナ (furigana) field write it in katakana; if the field says ふりがな use hiragana (すみす めりっさ); some bank and card forms ask for half-width katakana (ｽﾐｽ ﾒﾘｯｻ).

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 Melissa in Japanese?

Melissa is usually written メリッサ (merissa) in katakana, the script Japanese uses for foreign names. In hiragana it is めりっさ.

Is there a kanji for Melissa?

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.