Best Overall
健
けん
The most balanced reading — natural sound, clear meaning.
- 健 healthy
Ken in Japanese Kanji
Pronounced ケン · けん · ken
Elegant
賢
けん
Softer characters, chosen for how they look and feel on the page.
- 賢 smart
Bold
剣
けん
Stronger strokes and more striking meanings.
- 剣 sword
How these characters were chosen
Japanese has no letters for foreign names, so a name is first written in katakana — ケン — 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.
健 is built from 健 (healthy). 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.