Reference · A to Z
Both systems, one table. Pythagorean runs 1-9 in alphabetical order; Chaldean assigns by sound and omits 9. Every name calculation on this site uses one of these two tables.
Every letter
Read across a row to see how far the two traditions disagree about one letter. Ten letters carry the same value in both — A, B, C, D, E, J, K, L, M and N. The other sixteen do not, and the divergence starts at F.
| Letter | Pythagorean | Chaldean | Same? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | 1 | Yes |
| B | 2 | 2 | Yes |
| C | 3 | 3 | Yes |
| D | 4 | 4 | Yes |
| E | 5 | 5 | Yes |
| F | 6 | 8 | No |
| G | 7 | 3 | No |
| H | 8 | 5 | No |
| I | 9 | 1 | No |
| J | 1 | 1 | Yes |
| K | 2 | 2 | Yes |
| L | 3 | 3 | Yes |
| M | 4 | 4 | Yes |
| N | 5 | 5 | Yes |
| O | 6 | 7 | No |
| P | 7 | 8 | No |
| Q | 8 | 1 | No |
| R | 9 | 2 | No |
| S | 1 | 3 | No |
| T | 2 | 4 | No |
| U | 3 | 6 | No |
| V | 4 | 6 | No |
| W | 5 | 6 | No |
| X | 6 | 5 | No |
| Y | 7 | 1 | No |
| Z | 8 | 7 | No |
Every value
This is the form the charts are usually printed in, and it is where the structural difference between the systems becomes obvious. Pythagorean is a grid; Chaldean is not.
| Value | Pythagorean letters | Chaldean letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A, J, S | A, I, J, Q, Y |
| 2 | B, K, T | B, K, R |
| 3 | C, L, U | C, G, L, S |
| 4 | D, M, V | D, M, T |
| 5 | E, N, W | E, H, N, X |
| 6 | F, O, X | U, V, W |
| 7 | G, P, Y | O, Z |
| 8 | H, Q, Z | F, P |
| 9 | I, R | No letters — 9 is never assigned |
Pythagorean is the alphabet laid out in order and numbered 1 to 9, then 1 to 9 again, then 1 to 9 a third time until the letters run out. Twenty-six does not divide by nine, which is why the last row is short and only 9 has two letters instead of three. There is no meaning in the arrangement beyond the counting; that is both the criticism of it and the reason it is easy to check.
Chaldean assigns by sound rather than by position, which is why it looks arbitrary until you say the letters aloud. The hard stops D, M and T share a value; the rounded vowel sounds U, V and W share another. And 9 is never given to any letter at all, because the number is held to be sacred. It can still appear as the total of a name — what it cannot do is arrive as a single letter.
Both systems ignore everything that is not a letter. Spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, full stops and titles are skipped entirely, so D’Souza and DSouza give the same number, and so do Dr Anita Rao and Anita Rao. Letters outside A to Z are not in either table, so transliterate a name into the Latin alphabet first, using the spelling you normally write.
One detail is worth stating plainly because it changes results: Y is treated as a consonant here, in both systems. Only A, E, I, O and U count as vowels when the Soul Urge and Personality numbers are split out. Some practitioners treat Y as a vowel when it sounds like one, which is defensible and gives different answers — if you compare this site’s output against another, that is one of the first places to check.
Worked example
The name AMIT, four letters, converted twice. Nothing here is rounded or adjusted; if you follow the tables above you will get the same figures.
| Letter | Vowel or consonant | Pythagorean | Chaldean |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Vowel | 1 | 1 |
| M | Consonant | 4 | 4 |
| I | Vowel | 9 | 1 |
| T | Consonant | 2 | 4 |
| Expression | All four letters added | 16, which reduces to 7 | 10, which reduces to 1 |
| Soul Urge | Vowels only, A and I | 10, which reduces to 1 | 2 |
| Personality | Consonants only, M and T | 6 | 8 |
Read the two right-hand columns against each other and the point of this page is made for you. The same four letters produce an Expression of 7 in one system and 1 in the other — a private, research-minded number against an outright leadership one. Neither result is a mistake. They are answers to two different questions, asked with two different tables, and the only real error would be to quote one of them without saying which table produced it.
The Pythagorean total is also worth a second look. AMIT adds to 16 before it reduces to 7, and 16 is one of the four numbers singled out as a karmic debt. A calculator that prints only the 7 has quietly destroyed that, which is the whole argument for writing the running total down before you reduce it.
Start with the full name you actually use, since that is the one in circulation. Then calculate the birth name as a comparison rather than as a competitor — the interesting information is usually in the gap between them, not in whichever one you decide is the real answer.
Add a name in one system from beginning to end. Taking a letter from the Chaldean column because it gives a friendlier total is not a hybrid method, it is just an arbitrary number, and it cannot be compared with anything anyone else has calculated.
Almost every disagreement you will find between published charts comes from three places: whether Y is counted as a vowel, whether the Chaldean 9 row is left empty or quietly filled in, and whether initials and legal suffixes are included. This page states its answer to all three, which is the only way a reference table is any use.
A letter-to-number table is a convention, not a discovery. Nothing about the sound of a letter has been shown to carry a number, and no version of either chart has evidence behind it. What the tables do offer is consistency: applied the same way every time, they let you compare two names on a like-for-like basis, which is all a name number was ever really doing.
They come from different traditions. Pythagorean maps the alphabet in order; Chaldean maps letters to the sounds they make, which is why it is irregular and skips 9.
Ignore them. Only letters carry values; spaces, hyphens and full stops are skipped.
Transliterate the name into the Latin alphabet first, using the spelling you normally write.
More numerology
The tables above are the reference. These pages apply them for you.
All of them, read together
This page computes one number and shows its working, which is what it is for. The Numerology Report takes the same name and date and reads the whole set against each other — the two date numbers, the three name numbers, the Lo Shu grid, any karmic debt before reduction, and where the nine-year cycle currently sits. It is the one page in this set that costs anything, its price is in coins rather than rupees, and every figure inside it can still be checked free on the calculator that computes it.