Abjad calculator

The calculators on this page first write your name in Arabic letters, then apply every known abjad calculation: the ebced-i kebîr, sağîr and ekber values, the value according to the Maghrebi order, the digital root, your name sign and element through the yıldızname, the compatibility of two names, chronograms with their Hijri year equivalents, the Name of God closest to your value, and vefk squares.

There is no single way to write Turkish names in Arabic letters. Common names come from a dictionary with their Ottoman spellings, while names not in the dictionary are estimated by rules and marked as estimates. You can correct the spelling with the on-screen letter keyboard or enter your name directly in Arabic letters.

What is abjad?

Abjad is a number system based on the old letter order of the Semitic alphabets. Before the dictionary order used today, Arabic arranged its letters in this older order inherited from Phoenician and Aramaic and gave each letter a value according to its position: the first nine letters stand for the units, the next nine for the tens, the next nine for the hundreds, and the last letter, ghayn, is a thousand.

Abjad, which takes its name from the sounds of its first four letters (alif, ba, jim, dal), was used to write numbers in mathematical and astronomical tables before Hindu–Arabic numerals became widespread. Later, the numerical values of letters also came into use in literature, in chronograms and in Sufi interpretation. Today it is most often used to find the abjad value of names and to read chronograms.

The abjad order and the values of the letters

To make them easier to remember, the letters are memorised in eight words: abjad (alif 1, ba 2, jim 3, dal 4), hawwaz (ha 5, waw 6, zay 7), hutti (ḥa 8, ṭa 9, ya 10), kalaman (kaf 20, lam 30, mim 40, nun 50), sa'fas (sin 60, ʿayn 70, fa 80, ṣad 90), qarashat (qaf 100, ra 200, shin 300, ta 400), thakhadh (tha 500, kha 600, dhal 700) and dazagh (ḍad 800, ẓa 900, ghayn 1000).

The Persian letters pe, che, zhe and gaf have no separate value; in abjad they are counted like their counterparts ba, jim, zay and kaf. Spellings with a hamza are counted as alif or ya, and the Arabic round ta (tā' marbūṭa) is usually counted as ha. There are also usages in which the tā' marbūṭa is counted as ta (400); in a chronogram, the context shows which one the poet intended.

Types of abjad: kebîr, sağîr, ekber and Maghrebi

Ebced-i kebîr (the great abjad) is the basic calculation using the letter values above; when people speak of the abjad value of a name or phrase, this is what they mean. Ebced-i sağîr (the small abjad) is the remainder when the kebîr value is divided by 12; if the remainder is zero, 12 is taken. The folk yıldızname calculation is also based on this remainder.

Ebced-i ekber (the greatest abjad) replaces each letter with the value of that letter's name written in Arabic: alif (الف) 111, ba (با) 3, jim (جیم) 53 and so on. The same name therefore gives a much larger value. Maghrebi abjad is the order used in North Africa and Andalusia; in this order ṣad counts as 60, ḍad as 90, sin as 300, ẓa as 800, ghayn as 900 and shin as 1000, while the other letters stay the same.

The digital root on this page is found by adding the digits of the abjad value until a single digit remains; this number can be compared with the meanings of numbers in numerology.

How are Turkish names written in Arabic letters?

Since abjad is calculated with Arabic letters, a name written in Latin letters first has to be written in Ottoman script. Names of Arabic origin have an established spelling: Mehmet محمد (92), Ahmet احمد (53), Ayşe عایشه (386), Fatma فاطمه (135) and so on. In these spellings short vowels are often left unwritten, and the same sound can be represented by different letters: the h sound can be ha, ḥa or kha; the s sound can be sin, ṣad or tha; the z sound can be zay, dhal, ḍad or ẓa.

For names of Turkish origin, Ottoman spelling follows vowel harmony: in words with back vowels, k is written as qaf, t as ṭa, s as ṣad and g as ghayn; in words with front vowels, k is written as kaf, t as ta and s as sin. The page writes names not found in the dictionary using these rules and marks the result as an estimate. If your family uses a particular spelling, you can correct it with the letter keyboard and recalculate.

Chronograms

A chronogram (tarih düşürme) is the art of expressing the year of an event through a phrase or verse whose abjad value equals that year. Ottoman poets composed chronograms for the inscriptions of mosques, fountains and palaces, and for years of birth and death. When the letters of the phrase are added up, the result is usually the Hijri year.

One of the best-known examples is the phrase "Belde-i tayyibe" (بلدة طيبة), said of the conquest of Istanbul: when the tā' marbūṭas are counted as ta (400), the total comes to 857, and the Hijri year 857 corresponds to 1453 CE. The chronogram calculator on this page finds the value of a phrase, takes it as a Hijri year and gives its Gregorian equivalent; in reverse, it also shows which Hijri years a Gregorian year falls into and how those numbers are written in abjad letters.

The yıldızname and your name sign

In the folk calculation known as the yıldızname (book of stars), the abjad values of a person's name and their mother's name are added together, the total is divided by 12, and the remainder corresponds to a sign: 1 Hamel (Aries), 2 Sevr (Taurus), 3 Cevzâ (Gemini), 4 Seretân (Cancer), 5 Esed (Leo), 6 Sünbüle (Virgo), 7 Mîzân (Libra), 8 Akreb (Scorpio), 9 Kavs (Sagittarius), 10 Cedy (Capricorn), 11 Delv (Aquarius), and with no remainder Hût (Pisces). The remainder of the total divided by 4 gives the element: 1 fire, 2 earth, 3 air, and with no remainder water.

This "name sign" is not the same as the Sun sign determined by date of birth; it is found not by looking at the sky but through the numerical values of letters. The name compatibility calculation, which compares the name signs and elements of two people, comes from the same tradition. It is best to read these calculations as a cultural heritage rather than leaving decisions about your life to them.

The tradition of the Names of God and vefk squares

In the abjad tradition, one of the 99 Names of God (Asma ul-Husna) whose value equals or is close to a person's name value is associated with that person, and it is recommended that this Name be recited as many times as its value. The page shows the Name equal to your name value or, if there is none, the three closest Names with their abjad values; this is a practice of the tradition, not a religious ruling.

A vefk is a square of numbers in which a number is arranged as the sum of each row, column and diagonal; in mathematics it is known as a magic square. A 3×3 square (müselles) can be fully built only for totals that are divisible by 3 and greater than 15, while a 4×4 square (murabba) can be built for any total of 34 or more. The page calculates both squares from your name value.

Frequently asked questions