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Eight Phonetic Alphabets, Side by Side

NATO, LAPD, Western Union, two German standards, French, Spanish, and Italian — every code word in one table

One Problem, Many Answers

Every country that built telephone and radio networks eventually invented a spelling alphabet — and each solved the problem in its own style. France and Germany reached for common first names. Italy and Spain leaned on famous cities. American telegraph operators mixed both. Only the NATO/ICAO alphabet was deliberately engineered, word by word, to be recognizable across languages — which is why it became the international standard.

All eight alphabets below are available in our converter: type once, switch between them instantly.

The Full Comparison Table

	NATO/ICAO	LAPD	Western Union	German (Classic)	German (2022)	French	Spanish	Italian
A	Alpha	Adam	Adams	Anton	Aachen	Anatole	Antonio	Ancona
B	Bravo	Boy	Boston	Berta	Berlin	Berthe	Barcelona	Bologna
C	Charlie	Charles	Chicago	Cäsar	Chemnitz	Célestin	Carmen	Como
D	Delta	David	Denver	Dora	Düsseldorf	Désiré	Dolores	Domodossola
E	Echo	Edward	Easy	Emil	Essen	Eugène	Enrique	Empoli
F	Foxtrot	Frank	Frank	Friedrich	Frankfurt	François	Francia	Firenze
G	Golf	George	George	Gustav	Goslar	Gaston	Gerona	Genova
H	Hotel	Henry	Henry	Heinrich	Hamburg	Henri	Historia	Hotel
I	India	Ida	Ida	Ida	Ingelheim	Irma	Inés	Imola
J	Juliett	John	John	Julius	Jena	Joseph	José	Jolly
K	Kilo	King	King	Kaufmann	Köln	Kléber	Kilo	Kappa
L	Lima	Lincoln	Lincoln	Ludwig	Leipzig	Louis	Lorenzo	Livorno
M	Mike	Mary	Mary	Martha	München	Marcel	Madrid	Milano
N	November	Nora	New York	Nordpol	Nürnberg	Nicolas	Navarra	Napoli
O	Oscar	Ocean	Ocean	Otto	Offenbach	Oscar	Oviedo	Otranto
P	Papa	Paul	Peter	Paula	Potsdam	Pierre	París	Palermo
Q	Quebec	Queen	Queen	Quelle	Quickborn	Quintal	Querido	Quarto
R	Romeo	Robert	Roger	Richard	Rostock	Raoul	Ramón	Roma
S	Sierra	Sam	Sugar	Samuel	Salzwedel	Suzanne	Sábado	Savona
T	Tango	Tom	Thomas	Theodor	Tübingen	Thérèse	Tarragona	Torino
U	Uniform	Union	Union	Ulrich	Unna	Ursule	Ulises	Udine
V	Victor	Victor	Victor	Viktor	Völklingen	Victor	Valencia	Venezia
W	Whiskey	William	William	Wilhelm	Wuppertal	William	Washington	Washington
X	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	Xanthippe	Xanten	Xavier	Xilófono	Xeres
Y	Yankee	Young	Young	Ypsilon	Ypsilon	Yvonne	Yegua	York
Z	Zulu	Zebra	Zero	Zacharias	Zwickau	Zoé	Zaragoza	Zara

Scroll the table sideways on smaller screens. Notice how often the alphabets agree by accident — Victor appears in four of them — and how each reflects its culture: LAPD's plain American first names, Italy's roll call of cities, and the two German generations separated by the 2022 reform.

Which Alphabet Should You Use?

Default to NATO/ICAO. It is the only alphabet designed and tested for international use, and the one strangers are most likely to recognize.
Match your listener's context. Calling a German utility? Anton-Berta will feel native. Reporting a plate to a US dispatcher who reads back "Adam-Boy"? Mirror their LAPD-style words.
Never mix alphabets mid-spelling. Switching from "Alpha" to "Adam" halfway through a code invites exactly the confusion you're trying to prevent.
Western Union is history, not practice. It's included here (and in the converter) for interest — its telegraph-era words like "Sugar" and "Easy" survive mainly in old films and crossword puzzles.

Why NATO Won

The NATO/ICAO list looks arbitrary until you learn how it was built: linguists tested candidate words on speakers of English, French, and Spanish, under noise, at low volume, and with non-native accents, keeping only words that remained distinct in every condition. National alphabets never went through that filter — Historia and Hotel work fine for Spanish speakers among themselves, but NATO's words work for everyone. Read the full story in our history guide.

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