stef

name-spelling-variants

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Name variant finder using FamilySearch substitution tables

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🔍 Name Spelling Variants

Type a name and instantly see how it might appear in historical records due to:

Handwriting misreads — how indexers/transcribers misread old handwriting (e.g., Carter → Garter, Earter)
Phonetic substitutions — how clerks spelled names based on how they sounded (e.g., Schwartz → Shwartz, Swartz)

Based on the FamilySearch Spelling Substitution Tables for the United States and Canada.

How it works

Rendering mermaid diagram...

Each letter/digraph in the name is checked against two tables:

Commonly Misread Letters — maps handwritten characters to what they're commonly confused with
Phonetic Substitutes — maps letter patterns to sound-alike alternatives

Architecture

index.ts — Hono HTTP server
lib/tables.ts — The substitution data tables
lib/variants.ts — Variant generation engine
frontend/ — React SPA with Twind styling

Code