Japanese names are generally written in kanji, and just as there are alternative ways to spell Western names (though I question if we really need nine different ways to spell the name “Jason”), there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to what kanji to write your baby’s name with (for example, Tetsuya could be 徹夜、哲也、鉄也 and so on) — or lack of kanji, in the case of names like Madoka from Madoka Magika, whose name is written in simple hiragana (まどか). An interesting facet of names being written with unique kanji characters is that when you perform a search using Google or Yahoo in Japanese, you need to already know the correct kanji if you want to get any results. Since this isn’t always possible, Japanese net users will often do a search using hiragana or romaji (the Roman alphabet), which generally brings up the Wikipedia page for the person in question, containing the correct characters so that a second search be made. By the way, if you’d like to see your own name in kanji, you can get your very own Japanese hanko (name stamp) with your name in kanji characters, chosen by our native Japanese staff according to your specifications.!
Choosing a kanji name for a baby can be kawaii. Er, I mean complex.
