Name number quiz: from letters to a tarot card
Turn the letters of a name into digits with the Pythagorean table, reduce the total and find the arcanum. A quiz on the maths and on master numbers.
- 3 questions
- ≈ 1 min
- +3 bronze keys for a flawless run
What is a name number?
This quiz checks how a name number is worked out and how to link it to the Major Arcana. The name number is a numerology technique: each letter gets a digit, the digits are added and the total is reduced to a single figure. Most people use the Pythagorean table, where letters run in a cycle from 1 to 9.
In the Latin alphabet A, J and S give 1, B, K and T give 2, and so on up to I and R, which give 9. Russian uses the same idea with its own longer alphabet, so the same name written in Cyrillic usually lands on a different number.
How do you turn a name number into an arcanum?
Take the name, find the digit for each letter and add them up. If the total has two digits, add those, and if you get two digits again, repeat. VERA gives 19, then 10, then 1. Read the final digit through the Major Arcana card with the same number: 1 is The Magician, 3 The Empress, 9 The Hermit.
As with dates, the road forks here. Some schools reduce everything to one digit, others keep 11 and 22 as master numbers. If you stop at any total up to 22 instead, you get a different card, such as The World instead of The Empress. Neither path is wrong; just stick to one method.
Mind the alphabet too. The same name in Latin and Cyrillic letters often adds up differently, because the alphabets differ in length and letter order.
How it differs from Tayna's calculators
Tayna's cards come from your date of birth: the personality card, the soul card, the year card and the couple's card. Your name plays no part in them. The name number is a separate numerology key you can set beside your date cards to see whether they echo each other.
Treat it as a prompt for reflection rather than a label. Each run takes three random questions from eight, and every explanation shows the full letter count.
All questions and answers
Open after you play: the full question set with right answers and explanations.
1. How does the Pythagorean table give letters numbers?
Right answer: Digits 1 to 9 in a cycle
The alphabet runs in a cycle: A is 1, B is 2 and so on to 9, then the count starts again from 1.
2. What is the name number of NINA in the Pythagorean table?
Right answer: 2
N is 5, I is 9, N is 5, A is 1. The sum is 20, and 2 + 0 = 2: that is the name number.
3. Reduce the name number of ROSE to one digit. Which arcanum is it?
Right answer: The Empress
R is 9, O is 6, S is 1, E is 5: 21, and 2 + 1 = 3, The Empress. Unreduced, 21 would point to The World.
4. What number does the letter K get in the Pythagorean table?
Right answer: 2
K is the eleventh letter. The count runs in a cycle up to 9, so 11 turns into 2.
5. The name MAX adds up to 11. What do you get reduced to one digit?
Right answer: 2, The High Priestess
1 + 1 = 2, The High Priestess. A school that keeps 11 as a master number reads Justice, but that is another method.
6. What is the name number of VERA reduced to one digit?
Right answer: 1
V is 4, E is 5, R is 9, A is 1: 19. Then 1 + 9 = 10 and 1 + 0 = 1. Sometimes you reduce twice.
7. The same name gives the same number in Cyrillic and Latin letters.
Right answer: Myth
The tables differ: Анна in Cyrillic gives 14, then 5, while ANNA in Latin letters gives 12, then 3.
8. Which cards suit a name number from 1 to 9 best?
Right answer: Major Arcana 1 to 9
Each digit has a Major Arcana card with the same number, from The Magician, 1, to The Hermit, 9.