Chanukah : 3,390,000 hits.
Hanukah : 862,000 hits.
Hannukah : 677,000 hits.
Chanuka : 335,000 hits.
Chanukkah : 274,000 hits.
Hanuka : 192,000 hits.
Channukah : 128,000 hits.
Chanukka : 116,000 hits.*
Hanukka : 86,300 hits.
Hannuka : 51,400 hits.
Hannukkah : 37,300 hits.
Channuka : 33,600 hits.
Xanuka : 992 hits.
Hannukka : 686 hits.
Channukkah : 508 hits.
Channukka : 489 hits.*
Chanuqa : 25 hits.
With the exception of a few wild cards, there are 16 different spellings, based on four phonetic variations:
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The word starts with “H” or “Ch”
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Second consonant is “nn” or “n”
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Third consonant is “kk” or “k”
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The word ends with “ah” or “a”
I think I must have grown up with “Chanukah”, because it look most right to me. At Lila’s pre-school Hanukkah party, there were three different spellings within 10 feet of one another. In the interest of ending the ridiculousness of the dozens of spellings, I’m going forward with “Hanukkah” which is the preferred spelling used by the Library of Congress. At least it’s always the same in Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה
This would be a fun thing to make dynamic, even chart over time. If only I had time… Jeremy Blachman did the same Hanukkah spelling thing in 2004, interesting to see how much bigger the Google indexes have grown in 12 months.
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Um, you've got the Hebrew spelling wrong; there's a shuruk after the nun.
I ran a Google search for "spelling for Hanukkah" because I've always been confused as to how I should spell it in the English language. I found this article in the Top 10 Hits. It's a good article and well-written. Thank you for this.
However, I am still so confused....
I prefer Chanukah
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