The German Spelling Alphabet

Two Alphabets, One Country

Ask a German to spell a name over the phone and you will almost certainly hear the classic first-name alphabet: "Anton, Berta, Cäsar…". Yet since June 2022, Germany's official standard — DIN 5009:2022-06 — prescribes something different: well-known city names, from Aachen to Zwickau. Both tables are in daily use, and our converter supports each one, so this guide explains where they came from and when to use which.

The Classic Table (First Names)

The traditional German Buchstabiertafel goes back to early telephone directories: numbers were first assigned to letters in the 1890s, then replaced with first names in 1903 — a system so intuitive it survived for over a century.

A Dark Chapter in the Table's History

The classic table carries an uncomfortable legacy. In 1934, the Nazi regime purged the alphabet of names it considered Jewish or biblical: David became Dora, Jakob became Julius, Nathan became Nordpol, Samuel became Siegfried, and Zacharias became Zeppelin. After the war, West Germany's standard restored Samuel and Zacharias — but Dora, Julius, and Nordpol quietly remained, and most Germans never knew why those words were there at all.

This history became a public topic in 2020, and it was one of the explicit motivations for redesigning the standard from scratch rather than patching the old list again.

The 2022 Standard: City Names (DIN 5009:2022-06)

Published in June 2022, the new official table uses German city names — chosen to be widely known, clearly distinguishable, and free of the old table's baggage. Only Y keeps a letter name, Ypsilon, since no suitable well-known city starts with Y.

The standard also defines spoken forms for umlauts (Ä, Ö, Ü) and the sharp s (ß, spoken Eszett).

Which One Should You Use?

• Official and business contexts in Germany: the 2022 city table is the standard — government offices and many companies are adopting it.
• Everyday phone calls: the classic names remain universally understood; most Germans still spell with Anton and Berta out of habit.
• Austria and Switzerland: each has its own traditional variant (Austria uses Konrad for K and Zürich appears in the Swiss table) — the German tables are understood, but locals may spell slightly differently.
• International calls: use the NATO alphabet — it is the only table designed to work across languages.

Try both German tables in our converter: select German (Classic) or German (DIN 5009:2022) from the alphabet menu and compare how the same word is spelled.