Kanji My Name

Iris in Japanese Kanji

Iris in kanji: 愛莉寿 — one way to write Iris, with meanings you choose yourself, in the Japanese ateji (当て字) tradition. Some sounds have no exact kanji; ateji tradition uses the closest reading — marked ≈ below (e.g. ヴァ → ba, フィ → hi).

In Japanese, Iris is usually written アイリス (airisu)

愛莉寿 is an artistic ateji — chosen for sound and meaning, not an official spelling.

For anything permanent, have a native speaker check it.

Reviewed by Hitomi Kuga, Japanese-language teacher

Iris in kanji: 愛莉寿 — artistic ateji

愛莉寿 — “love · jasmine · long life”

Iris sounds like ai · ri · su in Japanese. Matching each sound to a kanji gives 愛莉寿 — one of 32 possible kanji spellings of Iris. Every character below has the same or closest Japanese sound but a different meaning, so the final choice is yours.

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How Iris becomes kanji

SoundKanjiMeaning
ai愛love
ri莉jasmine
su寿long life

Every kanji choice for Iris

Pick a different character for any syllable — love, dreams, strength, light — and the art updates instantly in the generator.

“ai” — 2 kanji to choose from

選愛loveIn this spelling
藍indigo

“ri” — 4 kanji to choose from

選莉jasmineIn this spelling
理reason · truth
里homeland
璃lapis lazuli

“su” — 4 kanji to choose from

選寿long lifeIn this spelling
瑞auspicious≈ sui
澄clear · pure
洲sandbar · continent

Tattoo, gift & wall art ideas

愛莉寿 makes striking vertical calligraphy — a popular choice for a kanji name tattoo, a personalised Japanese name gift, or framed wall art. Because you can read this page, you (and your tattoo artist) know exactly what each character means — no mystery kanji.

Questions about Iris in kanji

What is the kanji for Iris?

There is no single official kanji for Iris. This is one sound-based ateji (当て字) option: 愛莉寿, read as "ai-ri-su", with the meanings "love · jasmine · long life". You can swap a character for another with the same or closest Japanese sound: Iris has 32 possible kanji spellings in this generator.

Is 愛莉寿 suitable for a tattoo?

It can be a starting point for a tattoo design. Because tattoos are permanent, we recommend having both the katakana (アイリス) and the kanji checked by a native Japanese speaker before committing.

What does 愛莉寿 mean?

Character by character, 愛莉寿 reads 愛 ("love", read as "ai"), 莉 ("jasmine", read as "ri"), 寿 ("long life", read as "su"). Together they sound like "Iris" while carrying the meanings love · jasmine · long life.

Why does Japanese have so many kinds of writing?

Japanese uses four scripts side by side: kanji for meaning, hiragana and katakana for sound, and rōmaji for the Latin alphabet. A Japanese person writing a foreign name by ear reaches for katakana, which records the sound but carries no meaning — kanji is the meaning-based art form this site uses instead, in the ateji (当て字) tradition.

Read the full guide →

Is this how a Japanese person would write my name?

No — in everyday Japan, foreign names are written in katakana, which is why it's shown beneath every artwork here. The kanji version is ateji (当て字): an artistic portrait of a name chosen for sound and meaning, not an official translation, so anything permanent should be checked by a native speaker first.

Read the full guide →

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