Why is 渡部 累 transliterated/translated to "Lui Watanabe" with an "L"?


Why is [渡部 累](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B8%A1%E9%83%A8%E7%B4%AF)
transliterated/translated (I'm not entirely sure which it is) into English as
"Lui Watanabe" rather than "Rui Watanabe"?

The only cases I've seen of transliterations or translations involving "l"s
has been when wasei-eigo expressions get translated back into English using
English words, for example サラリーマン being translated as "salaryman" rather than
"Sararīman".




That's her personal preference, and the only way to reach the "correct" answer
is to ask herself why.

Generally speaking, there are many people, especially 芸能人, who want
nonstandard transliterated names, and people have the liberty to do that.

This typically happens when people want names which also [sound natural to the
ear of Westerners](http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2128081286457824501). For
example [譲【じょう】](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%85%E7%9F%B3%E8%AD%B2) may
want his name transliterated as Joe rather than Jo,
[ありす](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/13901/5010) may become Alice rather
than Arisu, and so on. A friend of mine is named 琳【りん】, and she always
introduces herself as Lynn to foreign people.




That's her personal preference, and the only way to reach the "correct" answer
is to ask herself why.

Generally speaking, there are many people, especially 芸能人, who want
nonstandard transliterated names, and people have the liberty to do that.

This typically happens when people want names which also [sound natural to the
ear of Westerners](http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2128081286457824501). For
example [譲【じょう】](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%85%E7%9F%B3%E8%AD%B2) may
want his name transliterated as Joe rather than Jo,
[ありす](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/13901/5010) may become Alice rather
than Arisu, and so on. A friend of mine is named 琳【りん】, and she always
introduces herself as Lynn to foreign people.

