Soundex Calculator

To use it, enter a name and press OK.

One of the starting points for many genealogists, (particularly those researching in the U.S), is the Federal Census. A census has been taken every 10 years since 1790. Especially in the earlier census's, variations in spelling for the same name were very common. Many names were spelt phonetically or at the whim of the census taker.

In order to compile a useful index to the censuses, the soundex system was created. The soundex system works by assigning a specific code to each surname by ignoring vowels and assigning different numbers to the consonants that make up a name. Letters that sound the same get the same number (e.g.: b, v and p are all assigned the number 1). An index using soundex codes was first created for the 1880 census.

There is a reasonably complicated formula for figuring out the soundex code for a given name. If you are interested in the details, visit T. Harmon Straiton, Jr's page. (Incidentally, if you try running his examples through this my Soundex Calculator, you will see there is a mistake with one of the examples.)