Best Overall
場菜道
ばーなーど
The most balanced reading — natural sound, clear meaning.
- 場 place
- 菜 vegetable
- 道 path
Bernard in Japanese Kanji
Pronounced バーナード · ばーなーど · banado
Elegant
芭奈堂
ばーなーど
Softer characters, chosen for how they look and feel on the page.
- 芭 banana plant
- 奈 phonetic na
- 堂 grand
Bold
馬南土
ばーなーど
Stronger strokes and more striking meanings.
- 馬 horse
- 南 south
- 土 earth
How these characters were chosen
Japanese has no letters for foreign names, so a name is first written in katakana — バーナード — 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.
場菜道 is built from 場 (place), 菜 (vegetable), 道 (path). 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.