Best Overall
真八
まや
The most balanced reading — natural sound, clear meaning.
- 真 genuine
- 八 spread out
Maya in Japanese Kanji
Pronounced マヤ · まや · maya
Elegant
茉弥
まや
Softer characters, chosen for how they look and feel on the page.
- 茉 jasmine
- 弥 increasingly
Bold
磨夜
まや
Stronger strokes and more striking meanings.
- 磨 polish
- 夜 night
How these characters were chosen
Japanese has no letters for foreign names, so a name is first written in katakana — マヤ — 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.
真八 is built from 真 (genuine), 八 (spread out). 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.