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Kanji for Lotus
The kanji most commonly used for "Lotus" are 荷、蓮、芙.
荷
Kanji that mean Lotus
蓮 is the lotus itself — the plant and its flower, read hasu alone and ren in compounds such as 蓮華 (lotus blossom). It is the character to use if you want one that stands by itself, and it is currently one of the most popular boys’ names in Japan, read Ren.
芙 and 蓉 almost never appear separately. They exist as the pair 芙蓉, an old word covering the lotus and the hibiscus, and outside that compound and personal names you will rarely meet either character on its own.
The flower’s weight in Japan is Buddhist. The lotus rises out of muddy water and opens clean above it, and it is the seat on which buddhas are depicted. That reading — purity emerging from difficulty — is what a Japanese viewer brings to the character, well ahead of any decorative sense.
Before you use Lotus kanji
蓮 is the character to use: it means lotus by itself, is read hasu, and works as a name. 芙 and 蓉 are halves of the compound 芙蓉 and look incomplete alone; if you want that word, write both characters together.