The "Soundex" was used by the National Archives to index the U.S. censuses. It codes together surnames that sound similar but have different spellings.

How To Calculate The Soundex Code:

• Print name.
• Cross out spaces, punctuation, accents and other marks
• Cross out any of the following characters A, E, I, O, U, H, W, Y (unless it's the first letter of your surname)
• Cross out the second letter of duplicate characters
• Cross out the second letter of adjacent characters with the same soundex number.
• Convert characters in positions 2 to 4 to a number
  • B, P, F, V = 1
  • C, S, K, G, J, Q, X, Z = 2
  • D, T = 3
  • L = 4
  • M, N = 5
  • R = 6
• Fill any unused positions with zeros e.g.. Lee is L000, Bailey is B400. There is always one letter followed by 3 numbers.

Soundex Limitations

Names that sound alike do not always have the same soundex code.

Names that sound alike but start with a different first letter will always have a different soundex code.

Soundex is based on English pronunciation so European names like some French surnames with silent last letters may not soundexed correctly.

Sometimes names that don't actually sound alike have the same soundex code.

Surnames with prefixes like Von, Di or La were usually coded without the prefix, but not always.

Surname to Soundex Coder Converts English alphabet only. Enter SURNAME without spaces or punctuation SOUNDEX code will appear below

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