∞Numerology · 5 min
Anyone who tries two name-analysis websites often gets different numbers for the same name. This is not a program bug: numerology contains several independent traditions that use different letter-to-number tables. The overview below compares the three most important.
1. The Pythagorean method
The most common Western version. It assigns the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet in order to the numbers 1 to 9 and then starts again: A=1, B=2 … I=9, J=1 … R=9, S=1 … Z=8. Its advantage is simplicity. Its drawback is that the assignment is mechanical, with no phonetic or semantic logic behind it, and it took shape in the early 20th century.
2. The Chaldean method
The name "Chaldean" points to Babylon, although the ancient origin is uncertain. It uses the numbers 1 to 8 (the 9 is regarded as "sacred" and so is not assigned to a letter) and arranges letters by their sound: 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. Traditionally it analyses the name used in everyday life and gives separate meaning to the "compound number" (for example 13, 22) before the final reduction.
3. The Kabbalistic (Hebrew) method
The letters of the Hebrew alphabet have numerical values (the first nine letters 1 to 9, the next ones tens: 10 to 90, then hundreds: 100 to 400). Gematria works from the sum of the letter values of words and has existed for centuries in Jewish tradition as a tool of textual interpretation. A famous example is the word "chai" (חי, life): het (8) + yod (10) = 18, which is why 18 is regarded as the "number of life". The "Kabbalistic" tables for names in Latin letters are modern adaptations that follow the Hebrew system only loosely, and many variants exist.
A worked example
Take the name LUCA:
- Pythagorean: L=3, U=3, C=3, A=1 → 10 → 1
- Chaldean: L=3, U=6, C=3, A=1 → 13 → 4
Another example: KOVACS (accents omitted):
- Pythagorean: K=2, O=6, V=4, A=1, C=3, S=1 → 17 → 8
- Chaldean: K=2, O=7, V=6, A=1, C=3, S=3 → 22 → master number 22, or reduced 4
So the same name ends up with quite different characters under the two methods (1 or 4; 8 or 22/4).
Further choices that cause differences
- Which name? Birth name, married name, nickname, name in use: each gives a different number.
- Accents and Hungarian letters: should á, é, ö, ő, ü, ű be treated as their base letters? Do digraphs such as "cs", "sz", "zs" count as one letter or two?
- The letter Y: vowel or consonant? The answer changes the Soul Urge and Personality numbers.
- Reduction: when does it stop at a master number?
What does this teach about reliability?
If the same name yields several "correct" numbers and each comes with a plausible description, that suggests the descriptions are about the reader, not the name. This is called the Barnum or Forer effect: broad, favourable wordings fit almost anyone. Controlled studies have found no evidence of a link between name numbers and personality traits.
How can it still be used sensibly?
- As cultural curiosity: gematria, for example, is an important part of Hebrew textual culture, and the Chaldean and Pythagorean systems are an interesting chapter in the history of numerology.
- For reflection: starting from the descriptions you can ask yourself questions.
- As a lesson in healthy scepticism: if a source talks about your number as though it were the only correct one, the examples above are a reason for caution.