How it works

Numerology as commonly practiced is a modern Western system. Its books and teachers differ on several points, so a name or a date can give more than one number depending on the method. This page lists every choice the calculator makes.

The calculator uses the table usually called Pythagorean. A to I are 1 to 9, J to R are 1 to 9, and S to Z are 1 to 8. The Chaldean table is a different system with different letter values. This calculator does not use it, and numbers from a Chaldean calculator will not match.

To reduce a number, add its digits, and repeat until one digit is left. The exception is 11, 22 and 33, the master numbers. When a total reaches one of them, the calculator stops there and keeps it. For example 29 becomes 2 + 9 = 11, and 11 is kept, while 44 becomes 4 + 4 = 8. The working shows every step.

The default method reduces the month, the day and the year separately, keeping master numbers at each step, then adds the three results and reduces that total, again keeping master numbers. For 29 November 1990 the month is 11, the day is 29 which gives 11, and the year 1990 gives 19, then 10, then 1. The total is 23, which gives 5.

The alternate method adds every digit of the date at once, 1 + 9 + 9 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 9 = 32, and reduces that, which here also gives 5. The two methods sometimes disagree. When they do, the calculator shows both numbers and says so.

The date must be a real calendar date and cannot be in the future.

These three come from the name at birth. The Expression number uses all the letters, the Soul Urge number uses only the vowels, and the Personality number uses only the consonants.

The name is prepared first. Accents are removed, so é becomes E, and ß becomes SS, Æ becomes AE, Œ becomes OE, Ø becomes O, Ł becomes L, Đ and Ð become D, and Þ becomes TH. Spaces split the name into parts. Hyphens, apostrophes and periods are ignored and do not split a part, so Mary-Jane is one part. Any other letter or symbol, such as a Cyrillic or Chinese character or a digit, stops the calculation with a message, because this table only covers the Latin alphabet and the calculator will not guess or drop letters.

The default method adds the letter values of each part and reduces each part, keeping master numbers, then adds the parts and reduces the total. The alternate method adds all the letters of the whole name at once and reduces that. As with the Life Path, if the two give different numbers the calculator shows both.

A part with no vowels counts as 0 in the Soul Urge, and a part with no consonants counts as 0 in the Personality. If the whole name has no vowels, or no consonants, that number is not available, and the calculator says so instead of showing 0.

None of the books we read from before 1931 states a rule for Y, and the worked examples we could check count it as a consonant. Modern teachers disagree, so you choose. Under the usual rule, Y is a vowel unless it sits directly beside A, E, I, O or U in the same name part, and then it is a consonant. The Y in Lynn is a vowel, and the Y in Yolanda is a consonant. The other two choices make Y always a consonant, or always a vowel. W is always a consonant.

Y only affects the Soul Urge and the Personality. When your name has a Y, the calculator says whether another Y rule would give a different Soul Urge or Personality number, and shows what each other rule would give.

The Birthday number is the day of the month, from 1 to 31. Its reduced form keeps master numbers, so the 29th has the reduced form 11 and the 20th has 2.

The Personal Year adds the birth month, the birth day and a calendar year, then reduces the total to a single digit from 1 to 9, with no master numbers. The year starts as the current year on your device, and you can change it. For 29 November and 2026 the sum is 11 + 29 + 2026 = 2066, which gives 14 and then 5.

The descriptions draw on old books we could read in full, mostly from 1905 to 1927: Balliett, Clement, Walton, Cheasley, Taylor and Coffman, with Sepharial (1911), Westcott (1911 edition) and the 1651 English of Agrippa for older number lore. Each page names the writer and year for what it reports. Themes labeled modern are current popular readings and are not claimed for any old book.

The books establish less than the tradition often claims. No ancient or medieval text we read states the A to I, J to R, S to Z table. The earliest book we found with it is Balliett in 1905, who credits Pythagoras and gives no source. Agrippa and other older works describe letter values on a units, tens and hundreds scale, which is a different method.

Most of the names are recent too. The words Life Path appear in none of the books we read from before 1931, which say birth-path, Path of Life, Birth Number or Soul Path Number, and Clement used Birth Number for the day of the month alone. Soul Urge is also absent: Cheasley in 1916 said Ideality for the vowels, Impression for the consonants and Expression for the whole name. Personal Year is absent as a phrase, though Taylor in 1926 adds the birth month and day to the digit of the year.

The books also disagree on the master numbers. None written before 1931 treats 33 as one. The phrase first appears in what we read in Balliett in 1917, whose list is 8, 9, 11 and 22. Taylor in 1926 keeps 11 and 22, Coffman in 1927 keeps them only for spiritual subjects, and Walton and Cheasley reduce them. The calculator follows modern convention on these points.

The calculator makes no predictions, gives no remedies and does not call any number better or worse than another. It describes a symbolic tradition, and the conclusions are yours.