Syllable structure of names

I've noticed that in general, English Christian names are more easily
rendered into Japanese syllables than surnames. For example, my own names
comes out as

buriikurii piitaa

I have a feeling that this is because Christian names are based on a common
Pan-European stock, usually based on Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin (in
no particular order), and are mainly based on the names of saints or
biblical figures, whereas surnames are more local and so reflect the
complexities of English syllable structure more specifically. (My own
surname appears to be a much mutated version of a place name).

Pete

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