Listosaurus Rex

The Jewish Festival of Lights is upon us!  While I do not celebrate the holiday, I wish a most blessed one for everyone who does.

Here is special list to celebrate!  It’s also a very practical lists.  After all, I’m sure you’ve seen Hanukkah spelled a bunch of different ways at different times.  Things that often vary: # of k’s, presence of ‘C’ at beginning, presence of ‘H’ at the end, etc.  I was considering using google as a tool to find the best ways to spell it, but fortunately, someone already has done it for me!

Over at Joe Maller.com, the different spellings have been tracked and ranked in terms of popularity on the Internet.  Not an official bit of research, but I’m not sure how you’re going to get a better answer short of straight up polling everyone in America.

Keep in mind that this is only American spellings of the holiday, I think.  The original Hebrew spelling is the “official” way to spell it, and it never varies.

Here are the top sixteen, and their number of hits on google:

• Hanukkah : 11,300,000 hits.
• Chanukah : 2,930,000 hits.
• Hannukah : 867,000 hits.
• Hanukah : 556,000 hits.
• Hanuka : 357,000 hits.
• Chanukkah : 231,000 hits.
• Chanuka : 293,000 hits.
• Channukah : 131,000 hits.
• Chanukka : 108,000 hits.
• Hannukkah : 54,700 hits.
• Januka : 33,700 hits.
• Hanukka : 31,400 hits.
• Channuka : 14,700 hits.
• Hannuka : 12,500 hits.
• Hannukka : 7,870 hits.
• Channukkah : 6,050 hits.
• Xanuka : 2,520 hits.
• Channukka : 2,040 hits.
• Janukah : 394 hits.
• Janukkah : 215 hits.
• Chanuqa : 120 hits.

Xanuka, really?  Chanuqa?  Any spelling that starts with a J?  But to each their own, I guess.  My preferred spelling, Hanukkah, is verified.  I asked one of my Jewish friends, and this was his pick, too.

This guy has been tracking the results for a few years now and has a cool graph showing the changes in the popularity of the terms over time.  Here’s the original site.

What’s your opinion on the spelling of it?