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Are foreign personal names usually written in katakana, or is this dependent
on the type or writing, and the target audience? For example, this Japanese
Wikipedia entry on [Steven
Bradbury](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%96%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%96%E3%83%A9%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%83%90%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC)
uses katakana, while this Wikipedia entry on
[JRuby](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/JRuby) uses romaji for the contributors.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-04T00:45:18.850
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2011-12-27T05:24:11.530
2011-12-27T05:24:11.530
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question
orthography katakana rōmaji
Are foreign personal names usually written in katakana rather than Romaji?
As you guessed, it depends on the type of writing and the target audience, and
also on the style. In text written for general public, such as newspaper
articles, foreign personal names are usually written in katakana. In academic
books and papers, it is more common to see names in the Latin script (at least
in mathematics and computer science).

As for Wikipedia, a [guideline of the Japanese
Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3a%E8%A1%A8%E8%A8%98%E3%82%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89#.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.90.8D.E4.BB.A5.E5.A4.96.E3.81.AE.E4.BA.BA.E5.90.8D)
states that foreign names other than Korean and Chinese names should be
usually written in katakana. I do not know how strongly this guideline is
enforced.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-04T02:49:37.520
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answer