Sorting through long lists of similar names can be tedious and time-consuming. Consider...

Sorting through long lists of similar names can be tedious and time-consuming. Consider the problem of trying to locate a phone number or other information in a huge database for a “Jim Christianson” or “Jim Christensen” if you do not know the exact spelling of his last name. Soundex is a coding system that was created during the Franklin Roosevelt administration in the 1930s and was used by the Works Progress Administration to index names for the U.S. Census. With the Soundex system, a surname can be found even though it may have been recorded under different spellings. Genealogists use the Soundex system and it has been used by the National Archives to index census immigration records. Each Soundex code consists of a letter followed by three numbers. The letter is the first letter of the surname (last name). To determine the numerical part of the code, write out the surname and do the following:

(i) Leave the first letter alone. Then cross out all occurrences of the letters a, e, i, o, u, y, h, w.

(ii) Cross off the second of any double letters.

(iii) Replace each of the remaining letters by numbers according to the following scheme:

(iv) Use only the first three numbers.

Consider the surnames Christianson and Christensen. They would each be encoded in the following way.

In general, to determine the numbers in the code, note the following. If there are two or more adjacent letters in the surname that would be replaced with the same number, then use the number only once in the code. If the surname is short, or if there are fewer than three numbers to use for the code, merely add zeroes to fill out the code. For example, the surnames Thom, Baddpacks, and Amonskit would be encoded in the following way.

a. Use the Soundex coding system to encode the names Smithson, Saendogh, and Smythes. What do you notice?

b. The Soundex code for the name Smith is S530. Create three other surnames that would be encoded in the same way.