What Does Soundex Mean?

‘Soundex’ is a phonetic coding system, or algorithm, that indexes names by sound. A Soundex search enables you to search for a name as it is pronounced, rather than how it is spelled – so the search results will include alternative permutations of a name, and not just a particular spelling of it.

The advantages for genealogical searches are obvious – it means that if you search for Smith, but an index has spelled the name as Smyth, a Soundex search will return results for both variations.