Generate soundex

Create a four-character Soundex code for an English surname.

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ToolSoundex Generator
Input
Output
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How it works

Soundex keeps the first letter, maps consonants to digit classes, removes adjacent duplicates and vowels as separators, and pads or truncates the code to four characters. The mapping is deliberately coarse for English surname indexing.

  • The fixed letter-plus-three-digits format suits compact historical indexes.

Worked example

Generate Soundex codes
Create Soundex phonetic codes for similar-sounding names
Input
											Robert Rupert
Output
												Robert: R163
Rupert: R163

When to use this

Genealogy searches, census indexes, and approximate surname lookups use Soundex.

Edge cases

  • H and W can separate duplicate consonant codes without contributing digits.
  • Prefixes such as Mc can alter the retained first letter.
  • Non-English names may collapse into an unhelpful code.

References