What a numerology alphabet chart is

A numerology alphabet chart is a lookup table that assigns every letter of the alphabet a number from 1 to 9. You look up each letter of a name, add the numbers, and reduce the total to a single digit. That single digit is the name number — in Hindi often called the namank (naam = name, ank = number).

There are two charts in common use, and they do not agree with each other:

  • Chaldean, popularised in English by the astrologer Cheiro in the early 1900s and the chart most Indian numerologists work with.
  • Pythagorean, the simple A=1 to I=9 sequence used in most Western numerology books and most free online calculators.

Everything else in name numerology sits on top of one of these two tables. Expression number, Soul Urge, Personality, business-name scoring, name-correction advice — all of it is arithmetic on a letter chart. So the first honest thing to say about name numerology is this: the answer you get depends on which chart you used, and any calculator that does not tell you which one it used is hiding half the method.

Both tables are printed in full below.

The Chaldean letter table (A–Z)

Chaldean groups letters by sound-value rather than alphabetical order, which is why the arrangement looks irregular. Grouped by number:

`` 1 → A I J Q Y 2 → B K R 3 → C G L S 4 → D M T 5 → E H N X 6 → U V W 7 → O Z 8 → F P 9 → (no letters assigned) ``

The same table in A-to-Z order, for quick lookup:

`` A 1 B 2 C 3 D 4 E 5 F 8 G 3 H 5 I 1 J 1 K 2 L 3 M 4 N 5 O 7 P 8 Q 1 R 2 S 3 T 4 U 6 V 6 W 6 X 5 Y 1 Z 7 ``

Note there is no 9 row. That is not a printing error — it is the defining feature of the system, and the next section explains it.

The Pythagorean letter table

Pythagorean is the easier of the two to memorise, because it simply counts 1 to 9 and starts again:

`` 1 → A J S 2 → B K T 3 → C L U 4 → D M V 5 → E N W 6 → F O X 7 → G P Y 8 → H Q Z 9 → I R ``

In A-to-Z order:

`` A 1 B 2 C 3 D 4 E 5 F 6 G 7 H 8 I 9 J 1 K 2 L 3 M 4 N 5 O 6 P 7 Q 8 R 9 S 1 T 2 U 3 V 4 W 5 X 6 Y 7 Z 8 ``

If you have ever added up your name on the back of a notebook in school, this is almost certainly the chart you used.

Why Chaldean skips 9

The traditional explanation is that 9 was treated as a sacred or complete number and so was not attached to any ordinary letter. Nine can still appear as a result — plenty of names total 9 after reduction — but no single letter contributes a 9 on its way there.

Two things are worth being straight about here. First, this is the reason the tradition gives for itself; it is a convention carried forward by practitioners, not a fact that can be checked against arithmetic. Second, the "ancient Babylon" origin story attached to Chaldean numerology is traditional rather than documented. What is documented is the modern transmission: Cheiro's books put this table into wide circulation, and Indian numerologists have largely worked from that lineage since.

Use whichever framing you find useful. Neither the sacredness of 9 nor the antiquity of the chart changes the numbers you get.

Worked example: mapping a full Indian name

Take the name Rajesh Kumar Sharma. Spaces and punctuation are ignored; only letters are counted.

Pythagorean:

`` R A J E S H = 9+1+1+5+1+8 = 25 K U M A R = 2+3+4+1+9 = 19 S H A R M A = 1+8+1+9+4+1 = 24 Total 25 + 19 + 24 = 68 → 6+8 = 14 → 1+4 = 5 ``

Chaldean:

`` R A J E S H = 2+1+1+5+3+5 = 17 K U M A R = 2+6+4+1+2 = 15 S H A R M A = 3+5+1+2+4+1 = 16 Total 17 + 15 + 16 = 48 → 4+8 = 12 → 1+2 = 3 ``

Same name, same spelling, same effort — 5 in Pythagorean, 3 in Chaldean. This is the normal outcome, not an edge case. If you have been given two different name numbers by two different astrologers, this is usually the whole explanation.

Which system to use for an Indian name

There is no neutral authority that settles this. What can be said accurately:

  • Most Indian practitioners use Chaldean. If you are being read by a numerologist in India, or reading a Hindi or Hinglish numerology book, Chaldean is the likely default.
  • Most Western material and most generic web calculators use Pythagorean. It is simpler to implement and simpler to teach.
  • Some readers use both deliberately — Chaldean for the name, Pythagorean for date-based numbers such as mulank (the birth-day root number) and bhagyank (the full-date number) — and compare.

Our own Chaldean name calculator and name numerology calculator let you switch systems and see both results side by side, precisely because we do not think you should have to take one school's word for it.

One caution specific to Indian names: both charts are built for the Latin alphabet, so your Roman spelling is doing the work, not the Devanagari original. Sharma and Sharmaa give different totals. Lakshmi and Laxmi give different totals. Choose the spelling you actually use — on your documents, your signature, the way people write your name — and stay consistent. Do not switch spellings to chase a number you like better and then treat the new number as a discovery.

How letters combine into Expression, Soul Urge and Personality numbers

Once you have the chart, three of the standard name numbers come almost free. They differ only in which letters you count:

  • Expression number (also called Destiny or the name number): add all letters.
  • Soul Urge number (also called Heart's Desire): add only the vowels.
  • Personality number: add only the consonants.

Continuing with Rajesh Kumar Sharma, using strict A, E, I, O, U as the vowels:

`` Pythagorean vowels 1+5+3+1+1+1 = 12 → 3 consonants 68 − 12 = 56 → 11 Chaldean vowels 1+5+6+1+1+1 = 15 → 6 consonants 48 − 15 = 33 → 33 ``

Two details in that output are worth flagging.

Master numbers. 11, 22 and 33 are conventionally left unreduced rather than collapsed to 2, 4 and 6. Our calculators preserve them. Some schools reduce them anyway. If your result disagrees with another site by exactly this, that is why.

The letter Y. Whether Y counts as a vowel is genuinely contested. Many Western numerologists treat it as a vowel when it sounds like one — in Priya, for instance — and as a consonant when it does not, as in Yash. Our calculator uses the strict A, E, I, O, U rule and treats Y as a consonant every time, because a sound-based rule cannot be applied consistently to transliterated Indian names without guessing. It is a defensible choice, not the only one, and you should know which convention you are looking at before comparing two results.

Common mistakes with initials and surnames

  • Dropping the surname. "Rajesh" and "Rajesh Kumar Sharma" are different totals. Decide which name you are analysing and say so.
  • Expanding or collapsing initials. R. K. Sharma is not the same as Rajesh Kumar Sharma. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions. Traditionally, the name you are called by day to day is read for how you move through the world, and the full formal name for the underlying pattern.
  • Counting titles and honorifics. Dr, Shri, Smt, Ji and suffixes like Jr are not part of the name for this purpose.
  • Adding spaces or hyphens. Only letters carry values. A hyphen in a double-barrelled surname changes nothing.
  • Mixing charts inside one name. If you look up half the letters in Chaldean and half in Pythagorean, the total is meaningless. Finish with one chart, then repeat with the other if you want to compare.
  • Treating the number as a verdict. A name number is a reflection prompt. It is not a prediction, and numerology is not a substitute for medical, legal or financial advice. Anyone who tells you a spelling change will fix your career or your health is selling something the method cannot deliver.

Check your own name against both charts

The tables above are complete — you can do this on paper in about two minutes, and it is worth doing once by hand so you can see exactly where a number comes from.

When you want it checked, our free numerology alphabet chart page keeps both tables in one place, and the name numerology calculator will compute your Expression, Soul Urge and Personality numbers in Chaldean and Pythagorean together, so you can see where the two systems agree and where they part ways. If you would like the date-based side as well — mulank, bhagyank, Lo Shu grid and the rest — start from the numerology hub.

Now try it on your own numbers

This guide explains the method. Open the full A-Z table in both systems to run it — the page shows its working, so you can check every step against what you have just read rather than taking the result on trust.