Your Name Number, and Why Two Systems Disagree
A name number is arithmetic performed on a spelling. Two common tables give two different answers for the same name, which is the most useful thing about it: it shows exactly where the meaning is being supplied.
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Direct answer
Short version
Assign each letter a number, add them, and reduce to a single digit unless the total lands on 11, 22 or 33. The Pythagorean table runs 1 to 9 in alphabetical order; the Chaldean table assigns different values by sound and uses no 9. Which name you count, the birth name or the one you answer to, changes the result again. State your table and your name convention before reading anything into the total.
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Your Name Number, and Why Two Systems Disagree
How the calculation works
Every letter is given a number, the numbers are added, and the sum is reduced by adding its digits until one digit remains. In the Pythagorean table A is 1, B is 2, and so on to I as 9, then the cycle repeats from J. A name totalling 47 reduces to 11, and 11 either stands as a master number or reduces again to 2 depending on the method. The arithmetic is trivial and can be checked by hand in a minute, which is worth doing at least once: it is the fastest way to see that the numbers are supplied by the table rather than discovered in the name.
Why the two tables disagree
The Pythagorean table maps the alphabet in order, which is simple and modern. The Chaldean table is older, assigns values that follow sound rather than alphabetical position, and leaves 9 out as a number treated apart. The two therefore give different totals for the same spelling, often landing on numbers with quite different traditional meanings. Neither can be shown to be correct, because there is nothing outside the system to check them against. What can be said plainly is that a reading which does not name its table is not a reading anybody else can reproduce.
Which name counts
Practitioners differ. Some hold that the full name on a birth certificate is the one that matters, some read the name a person actually answers to, and some read both and compare. A married name, an anglicised name, a stage name and a childhood nickname are all real, and all give different totals. Rather than settling it by assertion, calculate the two or three that genuinely apply to your life and read them as separate descriptions of the same person. The disagreement between them is itself informative about how much weight the method can carry.
What a name number is good for
It is a prompt for reflection and a poor instrument for decision. A number can raise a fair question about how you present yourself, what you are known for, or which qualities you have been avoiding, and those questions can be tested against your own conduct. It cannot tell you whom to marry, what to call a company, or whether a venture will hold. Where a name number is used to justify a decision that should rest on evidence, the number has been asked to do work it was never able to do.
Concrete examples
| Example | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| The same name gives 7 and 3 | You have learned that the tables differ, not that one is secret knowledge. Choose one, say which, and stay with it. |
| A married name and a birth name differ | Both are names you answer to. Read them as two descriptions of one person rather than as a change of fate. |
| A total lands on 11 | Show it as 11 over 2. The root is still part of the arithmetic, and a different reduction rule would have removed the master total. |
Prayerful reflection
Let me not give a spelling more authority over me than my own conduct has earned.
Related Almanac guides
More from the journal
Sources and editorial method
Research and editorial references used for this page include:
- Astrodienst: Transits - Used for the basic definition of transits as current planetary passages over birth positions.
- Astrodienst: The four Elements - Used for the traditional grouping of zodiac signs by element.
This guide distinguishes traditional symbolism from calculated positions. Examples illustrate possible reflections, not predictions about a particular person.
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Common questions
Which table should I use?
Pythagorean is the more common in English language practice and the easier to check by hand. Chaldean is older and assigns values by sound. Either is defensible; using both at once and keeping the answer you prefer is not.
Does changing my name change me?
A calculation changes when its input changes. Whether that means anything about a person is a different question, and the honest answer is that nobody has shown it either way.
Should I choose a business name by its number?
You can, and people do. Treat it as one consideration beside the ones that decide whether a business works: what the name says, whether it can be spelled aloud, and whether somebody already holds it.
