text: You obviously know all about katakana, so I won't waste my time..!\n\nMaa could be\n麻 - flax; linen; hemp; (it's not normally pronounced 'maa', but it's the first kanji of Mahjongg...!)\n間合い (まあい) = interval ... if you remove the い you could get away with using it...?!?\n\nMa could be\n魔 demon; devil; evil spirit evil influence;  (the one you already know!)\n間 space; room; time; pause;\n真  just; right; due (east); pure; genuine; true\n\nAku could be\n開 to open; to become open; to become empty\n悪 evil; wickedness; (I assume this is the one you've considered!!)\n灰汁 (あく) lye; harsh taste\n灰 puckery juice; \n\nI couldn't find any 'a's, but you could possibly use\n嗚呼 (ああ) which is an exclamation - Ah! Oh! Alas! (they don't seem to mean anything alone though.)\n\nKu could be\n九 nine\n苦 pain; anguish; suffering; distress  \n傴 bend over \n区 ward; district; section; \n句 phrase; clause; sentence; passage; paragraph; expression; line; verse; stanza; 17-syllable poem; \n\n\nThere's another, strange looking Aku kanji that won't paste!! If you go to\nhttp://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C\nand search for 'bird's chirping sound (gisei-go)' you should see it!\nIt's 'akuaku', which is two identical kanji, and it's - as you can tell - the chirping sound of a bird!\n\nYou must already know that when Japanese invent names they often use obscure kanji, or obscure pronunciations! Maybe if you ask mature women, with kids, for ideas you might get a more sensible answer than from your co-workers!!\n\nBut I think it's considered a bit 'strange' for a foreigner in Japan to use kanji for their first name pronunciation ... katakana was invented for people like us!\n; )\n(I've heard of people doing this before, and they all give it up after a few years because they end up feeling a bit silly...!)