Free Tool

Soundex Phonetic Algorithm

Encode strings by their phonetic sound — names that sound alike produce the same Soundex code.

Tilores uses Soundex in production — so you can automate matching with rules you configure.

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Try it yourself

String A

String B

Soundex Codes

S530 / S530

Match

How it works

Soundex is a phonetic algorithm that encodes words based on how they sound in English. It was originally developed for the US Census to match names that sound the same but are spelled differently. The algorithm produces a four-character code: the first letter followed by three digits. Names like "Smith" and "Smyth" produce the same code (S530), making it useful for matching names despite spelling variations.

Use cases in entity resolution

Name matching across spelling variations

Historical record linkage

Phone directory search

Immigration record matching

Related tools

Jaro-Winkler Distance

Measure string similarity with extra weight for matching prefixes — ideal for name matching in entity resolution.

Cologne Phonetic Algorithm

Phonetic algorithm optimized for German-language names — "Müller" and "Mueller" encode identically.

Metaphone Algorithm

Advanced phonetic encoding that improves on Soundex for English pronunciation patterns.

Don't implement this yourself

Tilores Studio runs the full matching engine — this algorithm plus configurable rules and real-time entity resolution — locally on your machine. Free, no account, no cloud. Load your own data and see it working in minutes.

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