Hi, may name's Deibiddo.
Well that is how my name appears on my Japanese business cards.
Foreign words are transliterated into the Japanese syllabary phonetically but Japanese sounds don't fit well with many English sounds. Originally the two phonetic Japanese scripts, hiragana and katakana, contained the same sounds. Katakana is the Japanese syllabary used for writing loan words from other languages and foreign names. It is also used for emphasis when writing native Japanese words in the way that capitals are used in English. In more recent times new sounds have been added to the katakana syllabary to enable foreign words to sound closer to the original. These sounds are not found in hiragana.
There is no "v" sound in native Japanese so "b" is used instead, putting a "bi" in "David". Using "traditional" katakana my name is デイビッド (de-i-bi-d-do). The "v" sounds are among those added to the katakana syllabary so my name can also be written as デイヴィッド (de-i-vi-d-do).
All karateka who are not Japanese or have a Japanese name (ie are of Japanese decent) have their name written on their black belt in katakana. The Japanese Translator UK site does a good job of transliterating most common English names to katakana and gives an explanation of the pronunciation. You can use that site to see how your name might look in katakana. Keep in mind that these transliterations are phonetic and are based on common British English pronunciations.
There are some non-Japanese people who want their name written in kanji. I'll talk about that and my American business associate, Fawning Orchid aka Africa Holland, in my next blog.
