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I was trying to find ways to translate people's names into 当て字, and came across this website that seems to list 4 types of 当て字:
暴走族風【ぼうそうぞくふう】, 宝塚風【たからづかふう】, お子様風【おこさまふう】, 難読文字【なんどくもじ】
The best translation I can make is "Biker-style", "Takarazuka-style", "Childlike-style", and "Difficult Words". Are these 4 standard types of 当て字, or is it something the author of the website made up himself?

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    Is it you or the website who is reading 風 as かぜ? Either way, it is weird.
    – user4032
    Commented Jul 9, 2016 at 21:17
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    In this context (meaning "style"), 風 is read ふう. Also 宝塚 is read たからづか.
    – jogloran
    Commented Jul 9, 2016 at 21:17
  • Thanks, I made both of these changes, they were my own mistakes.
    – bcloutier
    Commented Jul 9, 2016 at 21:20

2 Answers 2

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First and foremost, that website is in no way an authoritative guide to [当]{あ}て[字]{じ}. It even says 「当て字で[遊]{あそ}ぼう」("Let's play with ateji!") in a highlighted color. The four ateji patterns given are completely random and just for fun.

All I want to do here is to explain the first two patterns as many Japanese-learners would be unfamiliar with the ideas behind them. The other two, 「お[子様風]{こさまふう}」 and 「[難読文字風]{なんどくもじふう}」 could be figured out by using a dictionary.

1) [暴走族風]{ぼうそうぞくふう}

暴走族 (hot-rodders) are known for their love of kanji. They write everything in kanji --- but only in abnormal kanji. Below, they are saying 「よろしく！アイラブユー」 and that kanji version of 「よろしく」 is very famous among us non-暴走族 Japanese citizens as well.

enter image description here
(source: blogimg.jp)

2) [宝塚風]{たからづかふう}

宝塚 is a highly popular female-only theatrical company. (It is almost impossible to get tickets for its shows!)

The actresses of Takarazuka, with basically no exceptions, have dramatic-sounding and gorgeous-looking stage names - both first and last names. Below are some examples.

enter image description here

Some of you might notice that the list contains masculine-sounding names. That is because some actresses of Takarazuka always play the male parts.

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  • Thanks for this, I had a vague idea of what these kanji represented but you've helped clarify exactly what they meant.
    – bcloutier
    Commented Jul 10, 2016 at 22:14
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The website appears to be an 当て字 generator. You input kana and it outputs 当て字 based on the above-listed arbitrary styles. They aren't real types of 当て字.

As an aside, I'm not sure exactly what the criteria is for the first two (at a glance I'd say it could be kanji with bad connotations vs good/imperial connotations), but the latter two just create 当て字 using simple and complex kanji respectively.

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    The criteria are SO clear only if you are familiar with how 暴走族 like to write things and how 宝塚 actresses like to create their stage names.
    – user4032
    Commented Jul 9, 2016 at 21:22

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