Expression, Soul Urge and Personality Numbers From a Name

A Western name screen shows three numbers from one name. The expression number counts all of the letters. The soul urge number takes only the vowels, and the personality number only the consonants. Each letter takes a value from the Pythagorean table: A to I are 1 to 9, and J starts the count over at 1.

Our API works word by word: it sums a word's letters, then reduces that sum. Reducing means you keep adding a sum's digits until one digit is all you have. The master numbers 11, 22 and 33 are left alone. Then the API adds the word results and reduces again.

For John Doe, John comes to 20, or 2, and Doe to 15, or 6. So his expression is 8. His soul urge is also 8: John's O gives 6, and Doe's O and E give 11. His personality is 9: J, H and N make 14, or 5, and D adds 4.

Y can land on either side. The API counts it as a vowel only when no vowel sits next to it. On screen, ask for the complete birth name, middle name included. Label each number with the letters it reads, and print each word's sum.

Expression, soul urge and personality for John Doe, letter by letter

John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, is the sample person in our docs. The first table gives each letter of his name, its value and its side. Vowels go to the soul urge and consonants to the personality. The expression number takes them all.

Then each word is summed by itself. This table shows each word's three sums and how the words come together.

Doe's two vowels make 11, which is a master number. The API holds on to that 11 inside the word, then adds John's 6. Our post on master numbers shows when a master number lasts to the final result.

Each answer also lists the raw word sums, before any reducing, in a field called words. John's lists are [20, 15], [6, 11] and [14, 4]. The 14 in his personality also shows up under karmic_debt.

Jane Doe, and the maturity number

Jane Doe, born Mar 22, 1992, is the second sample person in our docs. Her first name gives J 1, A 1, N 5 and E 5.

John and Jane end up with the same soul urge, 8. Each first name has vowels worth 6, and both share Doe. Their other two numbers differ.

The maturity number is one more sum: life path plus expression, reduced. John has 6 + 8 = 14, so 5. Jane has 1 + 9 = 10, so 1.

How the API counts the letter Y

A, E, I, O and U are vowels. W never counts as a vowel. Y can go either way. Our API looks only at the letters on each side of a Y, never at how the name sounds. Every answer states this rule in basis.y. We sent four names with the surname Doe to see it work.

Kelly and Ashley end in the same sound, yet the API splits them. In Ashley, an E comes just before the Y, so that Y goes with the consonants.

Some guides judge a Y by its sound instead. One guide we read counts the Y in Bryan as a vowel, since it carries the first syllable. The API sees the A beside it and makes it a consonant. By sound, Bryan Doe would get a soul urge of 1 and a personality of 11. The API gives 3 and 9.

We counted with the same code the API runs. The core's baby name list holds 13,859 first names, and we read each one alone. A Y appears in 1,783 of them, or 12.87%. The API treats 1 Y in 4 as a vowel (25.00%). For a final Y, the share rises to 42.02%.

One calculator we read uses only A, E, I, O and U as vowels. Its rule and ours give a different soul urge and personality for 3.26% of all 13,859 names. A tool that made every Y a vowel would split from ours on 9.62%.

Y has a value of 7, so moving it changes both sums at once. In our count, both numbers changed on every name where the API's rule and a simpler rule disagreed. The expression never moves, because it reads every letter either way.

Put your app's Y rule where users can read it. Our numerology conventions page states it in one line.

A check your code can run

The three numbers are tied together by their digits. Add the soul urge digit to the personality digit and reduce. The result is the expression digit, because every letter goes to exactly one of the two sides. For John, 8 + 9 = 17, and 1 + 7 = 8. For Jane, 8 + 1 = 9.

We tested this on every name in the list, 13,859 of them, alone and with Doe. It never failed. Test the digit field, not number. With master numbers left whole, the same test failed for 1,495 names, or 10.79%.

// Check one POST /v1/western answer before you draw the three tiles.
function addDigits(n) {
  while (n > 9) {
    n = Math.floor(n / 10) + (n % 10);
  }
  return n;
}

function nameNumbersAddUp(answer) {
  let sum = 0;
  if (answer.soul_urge) sum += answer.soul_urge.digit;
  if (answer.personality) sum += answer.personality.digit;
  return addDigits(sum) === answer.expression.digit;
}

If it returns false, two answers got mixed, or a number changed on the way to the screen. The two if lines skip a block that came back empty, which the next section explains.

Middle names, initials and words with no vowel

The API reads every word you send, so the way a name is written changes the answer. Here are three forms of John's name, each sent with his birth date.

Adding Daniel leaves the expression at 8, but the soul urge and personality both move. The initial D moves two numbers too. It has no vowel, so the soul urge never sees it. When a user has a middle name, ask for it spelled out.

A word with no vowel drops out of the soul urge sum. For Kelly Ng, the expression words list is [20, 12]. The soul urge list is only [12], which belongs to Kelly. So never match these lists to the words of the name by position.

A whole name with no vowel gets no soul urge at all. Initials can do this. Here is the answer for J. D.:

J. D., born Aug 15, 1990. Trimmed to the name numbers.

{
  "input": { "name": "J. D.", "birth_date": "1990-08-15" },
  "expression": { "words": [1, 4], "total": 5, "number": 5, "digit": 5 },
  "soul_urge": null,
  "personality": { "words": [1, 4], "total": 5, "number": 5, "digit": 5 },
  "not_computed": ["soul_urge"]
}

Under the API's rule, each of the list's 13,859 first names has a vowel. Four have no consonant: Ai, Aoi, Ea and Ia. Sent alone, Ai comes back with "personality": null.

What the API sends back for John Doe

A single POST /v1/western call returns the three numbers along with the life path, the maturity number and the rest. Here are John's three blocks and the two method lines.

John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, New York. Trimmed to the name numbers.

{
  "basis": {
    "name_numbers": "Each word is reduced, then the words are added.",
    "y": "Y counts as a vowel when neither letter beside it is a vowel."
  },
  "expression": { "words": [20, 15], "total": 8, "number": 8, "digit": 8 },
  "soul_urge": {
    "words": [6, 11],
    "total": 17,
    "number": 8,
    "digit": 8,
    "reading": "Deep inside, you want success and to be respected for what you achieve."
  },
  "personality": {
    "words": [14, 4],
    "total": 9,
    "number": 9,
    "digit": 9,
    "karmic_debt": [{ "number": 14 }]
  },
  "not_computed": []
}

Every block also has a short reading and that about line. Since the about line names the letters a number uses, it works as a label. A second run with lang=hi returned Hindi text and the same 8, 8 and 9.

Want to see the three tiles before you build them? The life path number calculator is free and calls this route. It lists all three name numbers below the life path.

How to show the three numbers on screen

The table lists six choices a name screen makes, with the field or rule behind each one.

If your app shows the Indian name number as well, check which name each screen needs. The Indian number works on the name the person goes by now. Our Chaldean vs Pythagorean numerology post compares both letter tables and both name fields. For nicknames and spellings, see why numerology calculators disagree.

The Western numbers feature page lists every number in the answer. The glossary gives the soul urge number and the personality number a page each.

A user who checks John Doe by hand should find 20 and 15, then 6 and 11, then 14 and 4. Print those sums beside 8, 8 and 9, and the user can redo every step.