Person's name in Kanji

[Bobw.se5]

Hoping to find Kanji for the name of a friend "Kirsten" if at all possible, thanks in advance

 

[Majestic]

Its hard to say because Japanese usually write western personal names in the phonetic katakana script - like this キルスティン - rather than in kanji. You could make up a name using kanji that represent the different sounds in "Kirsten", but it would just be a made-up name, using approximated sounds, and not everybody would immediately recognize it as a name. It would just be a jumble of kanji.
The Chinese use kanji exclusively, so, for example, Kirsten as in "Kirsten Dunst" is written as 克斯汀 . However since Japanese kanji is used differently, a Japanese person would not recognize the above (because of the different pronunciation, and because the final kanji doesn't exist in Japanese).
Sorry to be a bit boring on this, but its not as simple as it would seem. As I said, you could fake a Japanese kanji name by applying certain kanji to represent the sounds - for example 喜瑠須典, but it is just one of a million plausible renderings. Using an approximation like this, and not realizing it is an approximation, could lead to embarrassment or disappointment. If you got it written on a t-shirt or tattooed on your body, and then expected all Japanese people to instantly recognize it as "Kirsten", you would be shocked and upset when they are unable to read it or unable to realize it is trying to say Kirsten in Japanese. The following site offers a different, also plausible version of the name;
Change your name to kanji
Also realize that kanji have meanings, and while you try to find one that approximates the sounds, you should also be conscious of the meanings.

 

[Bobw.se5]

Its hard to say because Japanese usually write western personal names in the phonetic katakana script - like this キルスティン - rather than in kanji.

Thanks, think that was what I was looking for, except for the next to last character ィ, all the others were what I had given to me, what I am after is for it to be part of a tattoo, that only the person named and myself will know what it means and any one else will not, she doesn't know any Japanese either

 

[nice gaijin]

I would personally probably go with キルステン, as I feel it's a little closer to the native pronunciation; the difference would be like the difference between "ten" and "tin" (with the "i" sound being a little higher than normal). This is the phonetic spelling in Japanese, so the characters only relay to the reader the phonetic spelling of the word: ki-ru-su-te-n

キルステン gets over 600,000 results in google, while キルスティン gets about half that. And Kirsten Dunst does use キルスティン, but it seems like she's in the minority there. I think it's a matter of preference, but in the absence of preference, I'd say キルステン is the default...

 

[diligentcircle]

It depends on where you live, but knowing Japanese (especially hiragana and katakana, which you learn in high school Japanese class) is not terribly uncommon, and even quite common in some places (for example I'm right next to a town that's known around here to have a rather large Japanese immigrant population).

Why not just come up with some secret symbol representing her somehow? When people ask you what it is or what it means, you can just say "that's a secret". And it won't make you look like a dork to people who know how to read katakana.

 

[Mike Cash]

It depends on where you live, but knowing Japanese (especially hiragana and katakana, which you learn in high school Japanese class) is not terribly uncommon, and even quite common in some places (for example I'm right next to a town that's known around here to have a rather large Japanese immigrant population).

Why not just come up with some secret symbol representing her somehow? When people ask you what it is or what it means, you can just say "that's a secret". And it won't make you look like a dork to people who know how to read katakana.

Im sorry but I want to make sure | Japan Forum

 

[diligentcircle]

Wow, thanks, Mike, for making me laugh.

 

[Bobw.se5]

It depends on where you live, but knowing Japanese (especially hiragana and katakana, which you learn in high school Japanese class) is not terribly uncommon, and even quite common in some places (for example I'm right next to a town that's known around here to have a rather large Japanese immigrant population).

Why not just come up with some secret symbol representing her somehow? When people ask you what it is or what it means, you can just say "that's a secret". And it won't make you look like a dork to people who know how to read katakana.

Where I live in London, there are hardly any Japanese residents, and even up town, you only see some tourists now and then, and they are concentrating on the sights.

 

[diligentcircle]

Do high schools have Japanese classes in London? Katakana should be learned by the second year in any remotely decent high school class. It's really basic stuff.

 

[Bobw.se5]

Do high schools have Japanese classes in London? Katakana should be learned by the second year in any remotely decent high school class. It's really basic stuff.

I honestly have no idea, but doubt it very much, maybe in some of the posher boarding schools, normally it is just European languages taught over here