Best Overall
安
あん
The most balanced reading — natural sound, clear meaning.
- 安 safety
Ann in Japanese Kanji
Pronounced アン · あん · an
Elegant
杏
あん
Softer characters, chosen for how they look and feel on the page.
- 杏 apricot
Bold
暗
あん
Stronger strokes and more striking meanings.
- 暗 dark
How these characters were chosen
Japanese has no letters for foreign names, so a name is first written in katakana — アン — which records how it sounds. Kanji are then chosen whose readings match those sounds. Because many characters share the same reading, there is never a single correct spelling; there are only choices, and each one changes what the name says.
安 is built from 安 (safety). Every character here comes from a hand-checked dictionary, and combinations that happen to spell an ordinary Japanese word are rejected before you ever see them.