Best Overall
伊万
いばん
The most balanced reading — natural sound, clear meaning.
- 伊 phonetic i
- 万 ten thousand
Ivan in Japanese Kanji
Pronounced イバン · いばん · iban
Elegant
衣伴
いばん
Softer characters, chosen for how they look and feel on the page.
- 衣 clothing
- 伴 companion
Bold
威盤
いばん
Stronger strokes and more striking meanings.
- 威 dignity
- 盤 plate
How these characters were chosen
Japanese has no letters for foreign names, so a name is first written in katakana — イバン — 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.
伊万 is built from 伊 (phonetic i), 万 (ten thousand). 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.