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I am a Japanese learner and I would like to know how my name is in Japanese. My name is Bill and I have seen the translations "ビル" (biru) and "バジル" (bajiru). I am aware that バジル means "basil" but I use it most of the times. Can you please help me?

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    バジル seems odd to me; I don't think I have ever heard it as a name. I would certainly stick with ビル (unless, of course, your name is pronounced somewhat akin to basil in English).
    – Ben Steffan
    Apr 23, 2017 at 15:44
  • @Ben Steffan Thanks for your advice! ありがとうございます！
    – user21858
    Apr 23, 2017 at 15:48
  • @Blavius my bad, deleted the comment
    – Felipe Chaves de Oliveira
    Apr 24, 2017 at 2:23
  • This could be a funny website for you: kanjizone.com/kanjiname.aspx?name=Bill Anyway, I'd go with ビール. Definitely funnier than ビル. :)
    – Tommy
    Apr 24, 2017 at 2:33
  • @Tommy Haha! 😂 Yeah! Very funny!
    – user21858
    Apr 25, 2017 at 16:29

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ビル is a good transcription of the name Bill. This website confirms the match: http://apps.nolanlawson.com/japanese-name-converter/#?q=Bill

Example:

なぜウィリアムのあだ名がビルなんですか？またなぜロバートはボブなんですか？

This is from a yahoo question website.

Why is Bill a nickname for William? Also, why does Robert become Bob?

You're quite right about バジル being the Japanese word for basil - it would make you sound as though you were named after a herb. More to the point, it doesn't sound anything like your name. ビッル might be another transcription, but this seems strange to me and I can't find any examples of it being used.

Incidentally, ビル could also mean a multi-storey building or a bill, as in check, invoice, paper money or beak of a bird - these are loan words from English. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%93%E3%83%AB

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  • Can I also use ウィリアム as Bill is the short/nickname of William?
    – user21858
    Apr 25, 2017 at 16:48
  • If you want people to call you ウィリアム, that seems quite all right to me. A google search of ウィリアム brought up links to Prince William. In Japanese I sometimes go by ロブ and sometimes ロバート. I prefer to tell people the former, because it's easier to pronounce.
    – Robert
    May 12, 2017 at 4:58

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