English

A Proposal for Proquints: Identifiers that are Readable, Spellable, and Pronounceable

Software Engineering 2009-10-12 v2 Computers and Society Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

Identifiers (IDs) are pervasive throughout our modern life. We suggest that these IDs would be easier to manage and remember if they were easily readable, spellable, and pronounceable. As a solution to this problem we propose using PRO-nouncable QUINT-uplets of alternating unambiguous consonants and vowels: _proquints_.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0901.4016,
  title  = {A Proposal for Proquints: Identifiers that are Readable, Spellable, and Pronounceable},
  author = {Daniel Shawcross Wilkerson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0901.4016},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Added a suggestion that "0q-" be used as the optional magic number prefix for proquint strings. Better to pick one standard than let people make up different solutions to this problem

R2 v1 2026-06-21T12:04:40.501Z