// D-M Soundex - Enhanced phonetic encoding for Jewish and Eastern European names
Generates multiple codes for ambiguous pronunciations.
Consistent 6-digit numeric codes for all names.
Optimized for Yiddish and Hebrew name patterns.
Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex, created in 1985 by Gary Mokotoff and Randy Daitch, is an enhancement of American Soundex designed specifically for Jewish and Eastern European surnames. Unlike traditional Soundex which produces a single code, D-M can generate multiple codes to account for different possible pronunciations, especially important for names transliterated from Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, Russian, and German.
Jewish surname variations:
Cohen variants:
Cohen � 560000
Cohn � 560000
Kohn � 560000
Kahn � 560000
Kagan � 556000
Moskowitz variants:
Moskowitz � 645740
Moscowitz � 645740
Moskovitz � 645740
Moskovich � 645740
Multiple codes example:
Auerbach � [097500, 097400]
AU � 0 or 7
Results in two codes
Key features:
- CH � 5 or 4 (varies)
- CK � 5 or 45
- Initial vowels � 0
- DZ, DZH, DZS � 4
- TSH, TZH � 4Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex is a phonetic encoding system created in 1985 specifically for Jewish and Eastern European surnames. It improves upon American Soundex by better handling the spelling variations common in names transliterated from Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, Russian, and German.
D-M Soundex generates multiple codes because many letter combinations can be pronounced differently depending on the language of origin. For example, 'CH' might be pronounced as in German 'Bach' or English 'Chair'. Multiple codes ensure matches regardless of the original pronunciation.
D-M Soundex uses 6-digit numeric codes (vs 4-character alphanumeric), handles many more letter combinations, generates multiple codes for ambiguous cases, and is specifically tuned for Eastern European and Jewish name patterns that American Soundex handles poorly.
It's widely used in Jewish genealogy databases, Holocaust memorial projects, immigration records, cemetery records, and any system dealing with Jewish or Eastern European names where spelling variations are common due to transliteration.