Your Name in Kanji: How a Japanese Calligrapher Chooses the Characters

People ask me one question about names more than any other: what is my name in kanji?

The honest answer starts with a correction. In Japan, a name from abroad is written in katakana, by sound. “Michael” is マイケル. That is how your name would appear on a Japanese form, in a newspaper, or in a friend’s phone, and I wrote a whole guide to finding your katakana name.

But the wish for kanji is real, and it is not foolish. Kanji are beautiful, every one of them means something, and a name brushed in kanji looks like art in a way that katakana sometimes does not. So this is the second half of that guide: if you still want your name in kanji, here is how a Japanese calligrapher actually chooses the characters, what I refuse to do, and how to tell a careful kanji name from a careless one.

What ateji are

Writing a word with kanji that were not made for it is called 当て字 (ateji), roughly “assigned characters.” Japanese has done this for centuries, usually for foreign words:

• 珈琲 — coffee (kōhī)
• 倶楽部 — club (kurabu)
• 亜米利加 — America (Amerika), an old spelling
• 寿司 — sushi, a spelling chosen for its lucky-sounding characters

Most of these are now written in katakana, but some survive. The old country spellings live on in abbreviations: 米 for the United States, 英 for Britain, 仏 for France. And 倶楽部 is still on club signs, partly because it says something pleasant on top of the sound: together (倶), enjoy (楽), group (部).

That last example is the whole art of ateji in three characters. The kanji match the sound, and they also mean something that fits.

Two ways to choose the characters

By sound

Each kanji is chosen because it is read like a syllable of your name. This is how most kanji names are made, and it has one big advantage: a Japanese reader can, with a little effort, sound the name out.

Michael in katakana is マイケル, ma-i-ke-ru. Dozens of kanji can be read ma, i, ke or ru, so sound alone never settles the choice. It only gives you the candidates.

By meaning

The other way ignores sound entirely. You start from what your name means, or from what you want it to say, and choose characters for that.

Sophia, for example, comes from the Greek word for wisdom. The kanji for wisdom is 智. One character, brushed large, is a beautiful thing to hang on a wall, and it says exactly what the name says.

The cost is that nobody will read it as your name. A Japanese reader sees 智 and thinks “wisdom,” not “Sophia.” For a gift or a piece of art, that can be perfect. For a name tag, it does not work.

The best of both: choosing Michael’s kanji

The kanji names I am happiest with do both: every character is read like a syllable of the name, and together the characters say something the name itself says. Here is how I worked through Michael.

1. What the name means. Michael comes from Hebrew and is usually rendered “Who is like God?”, a question that expects the answer “no one.” In the Bible, the archangel Michael is a protector. So the name carries two things at once: humility and steady strength.

2. The candidates for each sound.

3. Read it back. 真威気琉 reads ma-i-ke-ru. No two neighbouring characters form another word, none has a dark meaning, and all four are characters Japan allows in names. Together they say something like a true, dignified spirit, precious as a jewel: sincerity for a humble question, dignity for a protector.

4. Be honest about the limits. A Japanese reader meeting 真威気琉 cold would probably try ki for 気 and ryū for 琉 before landing on Maikeru. That is normal for kanji names, and it is why the explanation matters as much as the brushwork. Four characters is also the upper end of what I like for a name; if a name needs more, it is usually better in katakana.

Same sounds, very different art

Here is why this needs care. These two kanji names are both “Michael” by sound:

埋毛流 reads mai-ke-ru. It also says “bury,” “hair,” “flow.” Every character is a real reading, so an automatic name generator could easily produce something like it, and a buyer who cannot read Japanese would never know. A Japanese reader would.

This is the problem with most “your name in kanji” generators and with cheap custom pieces: they solve the sound and ignore the meaning. The kanji tattoo guide is full of what happens next.

The rules I follow

When I choose kanji for a name, I hold myself to a short list:

1. Only characters Japan uses in names. Japan allows a fixed list of kanji in children’s names (the jōyō and jinmeiyō lists). That is what ruled out 邁 for Michael, however well it fits the sound. If a character would look strange in a Japanese name, it does not go in yours.
2. Characters that suit the person. Some characters lean strongly toward girls’ or boys’ names in Japan. I ask, and I choose accordingly.
3. No dark meanings. Characters such as 死 (death), 病 (illness), 苦 (suffering), 悪 (evil) and 亡 (perish) are out, whatever they sound like.
4. No accidental words. Two characters side by side can form an ordinary word you did not mean. I read every pair and every whole name back as a Japanese reader would.
5. Short. Two to four characters for most names. If a name needs six, it is usually better in katakana.
6. Readings a Japanese reader can follow. Common readings, not obscure ones, so the name can actually be sounded out.
7. An explanation you keep. Every character’s reading and meaning, written down, so you can tell anyone who asks what your name says.

When your name is already Japanese

Some names cross over cleanly, because the same sound is also an ordinary Japanese given name. Emma sounds like Ema, a Japanese girl’s name written, for example, 恵麻 or 絵麻. Naomi is 直美, Hana is 花, Mari is 真理, Ken is 健.

If your name is one of these, a Japanese reader really will read the kanji as a name, which is about as close to “real” as a kanji name for a non-Japanese person gets. It is still a choice rather than an official spelling, but it is a happy one.

How it looks with a brush

On paper, kanji names have a challenge katakana names do not: the characters have very different weights. In 真威気琉, 琉 has 11 strokes, 真 has 10 and 威 has 9, while 気 has only 6. Brushed at the same size, the light character looks lost between the heavy ones.

A calligrapher balances this by eye: the light character is written a little larger and more open, the dense ones a little more compact, so the column reads as one name rather than four separate shapes. It is one of the reasons a brushed name looks different from the same characters typed in a font.

If you want to try writing your own, start with the katakana version in clear kaisho style, as in the beginner’s guide, then move on to the kanji once the proportions feel natural.

Kanji, katakana, or both?

• If you want your real name in Japanese, choose katakana. It is how Japan would write you.
• If you want art with meaning, a kanji name chosen by sound and meaning, with an explanation, is lovely on a wall or as a gift.
• If you want a single strong idea, one meaningful kanji often says more than a spelled-out name. The kanji series explains dozens of them in full.
• If it is for a tattoo, read the kanji tattoo guide first and have a native speaker check every character.

Many people end up with both: the katakana name as the honest one, and a kanji artwork as the meaningful one.

Where to go next

• How to write your name in Japanese (katakana guide) — find your real Japanese name first.
• The complete guide to kanji tattoos — the checks that matter before anything permanent.
• What is hiragana? — the softer script, and why some people choose it for names in calligraphy.

Your name in kanji will never be your official Japanese name. Chosen with care, though, it can be something better than a translation: a few good characters, brushed by hand, that you chose because of what they say about you.