Isopsephy
Isopsephy is the Greek counterpart of gematria: the letters of the Greek alphabet have numerical values, and the sum of a word's letters gives its number. The term literally means “equal in pebble-count.”
How the Count Works
The Greek alphabet gives values from 1 to 800, and the count also uses three archaic letters that dropped out of ordinary writing: stigma is 6, koppa is 90 and sampi is 900.
| Range | Letters |
|---|---|
| 1–9 | Alpha – Theta (+ stigma) |
| 10–90 | Iota – Koppa |
| 100–800 | Rho – Omega (+ sampi) |
Where It Appears
Isopsephy is known from inscriptions and graffiti of the Hellenistic world: in Pompeii, an inscription survives in which a lover encoded a girl's name as a number.
The best-known case is the number 666 in the Book of Revelation. Most scholars link it specifically to isopsephy: the letters of the name “Nero Caesar” written in Hebrew add up to 666, which also explains the variant reading 616 found in some manuscripts.
This, by the way, is a good example of how the method works: it doesn't predict, it encodes.
Why There's No Calculator
The same reason as with gematria: the system works with the Greek alphabet. Russian names would need to be transliterated, and transliteration is ambiguous.
If you need to calculate a Greek word, get in touch — we'll add the keyboard layout to the Expression Number calculator.