Seeing words in colour

Apparently synesthesia is uncommon (1 in 23 people experience it) and people find it quite fascinating. I’ve experienced grapheme –> colour synesthesia for as long as I know.

As a young child my mum spelled out my name in jellybeans and I corrected her on the colours she used, because I experienced those letters differently. At that point I assumed all people saw letters, numbers and names in the same colours I did.

Looking at some synesthesia alphabets online there are similarities between what synesthetes see. I’ve made an alphabet of how I see letters and numbers:

I should note that some letters (like H or K) are completely different colours for me when they are in words. I see names in colours as well, and really dislike certain names because of this. The up side of the condition is I remember things like phone numbers or birthdays quite easily. I also see time in 3D.

I don’t “see sounds” or “taste words” like some extreme synesthetes, but I hate the taste of coriander because it reminds me of grasshoppers.