A name turns into numbers through a table and a few decisions: which name counts, which letters are vowels, whether a subtotal or only the total is reduced, and what happens when a name has no vowels at all. Each decision is visible in the calculator's letter chart, so a result can be checked letter by letter rather than accepted as a whole.
Use the birth name
The numbers use the full name given at birth, as written on the birth certificate. A nickname, a married name or a spelling change produces different numbers, and the site does not advise changing a name to change a result. This is the rule Taylor states for the original full name and Cafe Astrology repeats for its name calculator (Taylor 1926; Cafe Astrology, Numerology, both retrieved 2026-11-08).
Accents are removed before counting, so José is counted as JOSE. Spaces, hyphens, apostrophes and periods separate or decorate words; they add nothing. Only A–Z letters count, which is why a name in another script is rejected rather than transliterated by guesswork.
The vowel and consonant split
Expression adds every letter. Soul Urge adds only the vowels and Personality only the consonants. A, E, I, O and U are vowels; Y is always counted as a vowel here. The finer tradition rule — Y when it is preceded by another vowel or when the syllable has no other vowel — is documented by Astrala, but a calculator cannot hear a name, so the site states the simplification instead of pretending to apply a sound rule.
The choice changes two numbers, not three. For Avery Thomas, counting Y as a vowel gives Soul Urge 2 and Personality 1; counting it as a consonant gives 4 and 8. The Expression is the same either way because it adds every letter. The comparison is computed on Why calculators disagree.
A full name chart: John Davison Rockefeller
Taylor's handbook works this name out on pages 43–44, which makes it useful for checking both the letter values and the order of the sums. The table below is printed from the calculator's functions; the book's own totals are quoted next to it where they differ in the intermediate step.
| Word | Letters and values | Word sum (P / Ch) |
|---|---|---|
| JOHN | J 1/1 O 6/7 H 8/5 N 5/5 | 20 / 18 |
| DAVISON | D 4/4 A 1/1 V 4/6 I 9/1 S 1/3 O 6/7 N 5/5 | 30 / 27 |
| ROCKEFELLER | R 9/2 O 6/7 C 3/3 K 2/2 E 5/5 F 6/8 E 5/5 L 3/3 L 3/3 E 5/5 R 9/2 | 56 / 45 |
| Number | Raw sum | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Expression (all letters) | 106 | 7 |
| Soul Urge (vowels) | 43 | 7 |
| Personality (consonants) | 63 | 9 |
| Chaldean name number | 90 | 9 |
The book prints the vowel subtotals as 6-7-3, totaling 16 and reducing to 7, and the consonant subtotals as 5+5+8 = 18, reducing to 9 (Taylor 1926 pp. 43–44). The calculator adds every vowel in one sum (43) and every consonant in one sum (63); both reduce to the same 7 and 9, but the intermediate number is different because the book reduces each word first. The site states the order it uses rather than reproducing the book's intermediate sums.
Word subtotals and the master stop
The letter table shows a subtotal for each word because that is how the tradition presents the work, but the four totals are computed from one raw sum of all letters, reduced once. A word subtotal of 11, 22 or 33 is displayed as a master and does not change the Expression. This is a deliberate site rule: Taylor's Griffith chart declines to add three name parts that carry masters, while the site adds the letters and reduces the final total, matching Astrala and astroyogi on the same name.
The difference is visible on Worked examples, where Griffith's 22-8-11 is set beside the site's single Expression number. Neither reading is hidden; they answer slightly different questions.
Names with no vowels or no consonants
Two branches have no number to show, and the calculator says so instead of displaying a zero. A name with no vowels has no Soul Urge; a name with no consonants has no Personality. The other numbers are still calculated.
| Name | Expression | Soul Urge | Personality | Line shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ng | 3 | — | 3 | No vowels in this name, so Soul Urge is not defined here. |
| Aia | 11 | 11 | — | No consonants in this name, so Personality is not defined here. |
The Chaldean number uses the same name
Cheiro's Chaldean chart produces one number for the whole name, with values from 1 to 8 and no 9. The site uses the birth name here too, though Cheiro says to use the most-used Christian name and surname (Cheiro 1926 p. 71); using one name for all four numbers keeps the comparison honest, and the difference is stated rather than smoothed over.
Reading your own chart
Start with the word sums to see where the letters land, then check the four totals, then read the reduction line under each card. If a number surprises you, the letter cell that produced it is visible — a second chart or a different Y rule is usually the explanation. The rules are stated in full on How we calculate, and the letter values are compared on Pythagorean vs Chaldean.