The method that assigns each letter a number from 1 to 9 and adds them up.
A is 1, B is 2, up to I at 9, then it starts again at J. All the letters of the name are summed and reduced to a single digit. It is a discipline separate from astrology and shares nothing with chart calculation: the only datum in common is the name, which enters no formula in a birth chart.
The three numbers the calculation gives
From your full name SideraMea derives three numbers, all using the same table. The name number, also called the destiny number, adds up every letter. The soul urge number, sometimes called the heart's desire, adds up the vowels only: A, E, I, O and U. The personality number adds up the consonants only, and Y always counts as a consonant.
Take "Mary Jane Smith". The letters are worth 4, 1, 9, 7, then 1, 1, 5, 5, then 1, 4, 9, 2, 8: 57 in all, which reduces to 5 + 7 = 12 and then 1 + 2 = 3. The vowels give 16, so 7; the consonants 41, so 5. Next to each number you see the letters used and the whole reduction chain, so you can redo the sum by hand.
Accents, spaces and master numbers
Before the calculation the name is cleaned up: spaces, apostrophes and hyphens do not count, and accented letters lose their accents, so "Zoë" becomes ZOE. Any other character that is not a letter from A to Z is ignored.
Many schools of numerology stop at 11, 22 and 33, the so-called master numbers, and leave them unreduced. Here the reduction always continues to a single digit, from 1 to 9. "Sarah Jones" adds up to 38, then 3 + 8 = 11: elsewhere that would be the answer, here it becomes 1 + 1 = 2. Each digit has a fixed meaning from the Pythagorean tradition, shown directly rather than through a reading written by AI.
Frequently asked questions
Which name should I use for numerology?
Usually your full name as it appears on your birth certificate, middle names included. Spelling changes the numbers: adding or dropping a middle name, or using a married surname, gives different results. "Mary Smith" has a name number of 9, "Mary Jane Smith" has 3. Some numerologists also look at the name you go by, but as a separate reading.
Does Pythagorean numerology really go back to Pythagoras?
The name nods to the Pythagorean school, which gave numbers a symbolic, almost sacred value. The method of giving each letter of the Latin alphabet a number from 1 to 9, however, does not go back to Pythagoras: it is a modern construction that spread mainly in the twentieth century. The reference to Pythagoras is a tribute to a tradition, not a lineage.
How is it different from a life path number?
The life path number is worked out by adding the digits of your date of birth: a different number, by a different method. The Pythagorean name calculation uses letters only, and the date, time and place of birth that a birth chart depends on play no part in it. Two people born on the same day with different names get different numbers.
See it in your own chart
Calculating your birth chart is free: wheel, planets, houses, aspects and a first reading. All you need is your date, time and place of birth.