How would you write the name Anibal in Japanese?

Question

So my name is written Anibal, I'm from Brazil, just so you know. I'd like to know how would you write it in japanese, I'm in doubt between A-ni-ba-ru and A-ni-ba-e-ru. Any further explanation would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

For this kind of question, you can start by seeing how other people spell it. I searched the Japanese Wikipedia for Anibal. Here were the top two results:

• Anibal Alejandro Sanchez - アニバル・アレハンドロ・サンチェス
• Tarso Anibal Santanna Marques - タルソ・アニバル・サンタナ・マルケス

How you transcribe a name usually depends on its pronunciation, not its spelling, so it's possible that an Anibal from a different region would have a different transcription. But you said you're from Brazil, and so is the second person I linked to above, so it seems reasonable to spell your name the same way as his. And that's true regardless of whether it's based on spelling or pronunciation--following convention in transcribing names is usually a good thing. So based on this, I think アニバル seems like a good spelling.

If you can't read katakana, that's A-ni-ba-ru, just like your first guess. That would usually be written without hyphens, so it's Anibaru.

Answer 2

As far as I know, the final L is pronounced [u], so that Anibal could also be アニバウ (A-ni-ba-u), which represents the pronunciation more faithfully than アニバル (which sounds more like Anibaru, when pronounced as a Portuguese speaker would).