One pepper often carries four or five names, and the name changes with the language, the region, and whether the pod is fresh, dried or smoked. The first table below holds confirmed equivalents: the same plant under another label. The second holds the pairs that get called equivalents and are not. That second list matters more, because a wrong synonym sends you a seed packet for a different plant.

Confirmed equivalents

PepperNames in circulationWhy the name changes
PoblanoAncho, MulatoDried; mulato comes from riper pods.
ChilacaPasilla, Pasilla Negro, Chile NegroDried.
MirasolGuajillo, Chile GuacoDried.
JalapeñoChipotle, Morita, CuaresmeñoRed ripe then smoked; morita is smoked faster.
Bhut JolokiaGhost Pepper, Naga Jolokia, Bih Jolokia, Naga Mircha, Raja Mircha, Umorok, King ChilliAssam, Nagaland and Manipur each have a name.
TepinChiltepin, Flea Pepper, Bird PepperTepin comes from a Nahuatl word for flea.
ManzanoRocoto, Perón, Locoto, Caballo, Canario, Apple ChiliOne species under Andean and Mexican names.
Scotch BonnetBonney Pepper, Jamaican Hot, Bahama Mama, Caribbean Red, Martinique PepperIsland names; several landraces share them.
Aji AmarilloAji Escabeche, Cusqueño, Aji Mirasol, Peruvian Yellow PepperAji Mirasol is the dried form.
Aji CristalAji CrystalAnglicized spelling of one Chilean variety.
PadrónPimientos de HerbónGalician protected designation.
AleppoHalaby, Near East pepperArabic name and an old trade name.
Urfa BiberIsotTwo Turkish names for one pepper.
ShishitoJapanese Sweet Pepper, Kkwari-gochuShishi means lion; the tip resembles a lion head.
CubanelleCuban Pepper, Italian Frying PepperMarket descriptions, not varieties.
CalabrianDiavolicchio, Peperoncino CalabreseItalian regional names.

Which pairs are not actually the same pepper?

Every row below appeared on this list as an equivalence at some point, including in earlier versions of this page. None of them holds up.

Treated as the sameWhat is actually true
New Mexico chile and HatchHatch names a New Mexico valley, not a cultivar. Dozens of varieties grow there, including Big Jim, Sandia and Joe Parker.
Anaheim and New Mexico No. 9Related by descent. Fabián García released New Mexico No. 9 in 1913; Emilio Ortega carried New Mexico seed to Anaheim, California, where growers selected a milder pepper. California Chile is a true Anaheim synonym.
Pequin and ChiltepinBoth sit in C. annuum var. glabriusculum, but chiltepin dries to a near-round ball and pequin to a small oblong point. Piquin, Chile Petin and Pinhead Pepper are true pequin synonyms.
Cherry Pepper and PimientoPartly true. Pimiento and pimento do name a sweet cherry-shaped pepper, but "cherry" is a shape that also covers hot cherry bombs and cherry paprika types. The Almanac calls the equation incorrect for that reason.
Guajillo and PuyaPuya is a smaller, hotter pepper, not a guajillo. Cascabel is also wrongly offered as a guajillo synonym.
Trinidad Scorpion, Butch T and Moruga ScorpionDistinct selections of a Trinidadian landrace, with separate records and different published heat ranges.
7 Pot, Jonah and Douglah7 Pot, 7 Pod and Seven Pot are spelling variants of one name. Jonah and Douglah are separate selections.
Habanero and Congo PepperSeparate records. Chocolate, white and orange name color variants of habanero, not synonyms for it.
Bell pepper and paprikaHungarian paprika peppers and Spanish pimentón peppers are their own cultivars. Sweet Pepper and Poivron are true bell synonyms, and Capsicum for all peppers is Australian and New Zealand usage.
Hungarian Hot Wax and banana pepperHot wax types run 5,000 to 15,000 SHU. Sweet banana peppers carry almost no heat. Hungarian Hot Wax and Hot Banana do name the hot one.
Malagueta and piri piriOne species, C. frutescens, two selections. Only the smallest fruits take the piri piri name, also written peri-peri and pili pili, and known as gindungo or jindungo in Angola.
Kashmiri chilli and Deggi MirchKashmiri Mirch is a variety. Deggi Mirch is a blended product mixing Kashmiri-type chilli for color with hotter varieties such as Guntur or Mathania.
Tennessee Teardrop and Tennessee CherryTennessee Teardrop is a real ornamental C. annuum heirloom from Tennessee. The Tennessee Cherry and Teardrop Pepper aliases have no source behind them.

Fresh, dried, smoked: one plant, three names

Mexican naming treats a processed pod as a separate ingredient, and the logic holds once you see it. A poblano dried becomes ancho; left to ripen further before drying, it becomes mulato. A chilaca dried becomes pasilla, sold in the United States as chile negro. A mirasol dried becomes guajillo. A red ripe jalapeño smoked becomes chipotle, or morita when the smoke runs shorter. In California, fresh poblanos get labeled pasilla so routinely that grocers and restaurants both repeat it, which is why asking what the pod was before drying settles more arguments than reading the sign. The same pattern runs outside Mexico. Aji Amarillo dries into Aji Mirasol. A Halaby pepper from Syria, semi-dried and crushed, reaches the shelf as Aleppo.

Is Deggi Mirch the same thing as Kashmiri chilli?

No. Kashmiri Mirch is a single mild variety prized for deep red color. Deggi Mirch is a blend that Indian spice brands popularized, combining Kashmiri-type chilli for color with hotter varieties for pungency, and the name comes from deggi, the cooking pot. The two land in the same recipes and deliver different heat. Buy on the ingredient list rather than the front label. Note that The Chile Pepper Almanac treats them as one variety, which this page now contradicts on the strength of the product sourcing.

Aliases this page could not confirm

Four names carried over from earlier versions of this list have no source behind them. They stay off the tables until someone produces one. Cheeseball Pepper for cherry pepper, Aji Blanco for Aji Cristal, Wrinkled Old Man Pepper for shishito, and Cobé for malagueta in Mozambique all fall in that group. Aji Peruano came off the Aji Amarillo row for the same reason, since Peruvian Yellow Pepper is the form that checks out. Huachinango came off the jalapeño row because the Almanac marks it incorrect, and Tennessee Cherry moved to the second table rather than vanishing. None of these are necessarily wrong. They are simply unsupported, and an alias list that cannot cite itself is worth very little.

How to settle a name argument

Three checks resolve most of them. First, ask whether the second name describes a processing state rather than a plant. Second, look for an accession number, since a PI or CAP code fixes identity in a way a common name never will. Third, check the species, because two peppers sold under one name often sit in different species. Every record here carries a Universal Pepper Number encoding species, color, size, shape and heat, which separates two similar names faster than any argument about usage. For the tepin and pequin tangle, see wild tepin and pequin variants; for the wider framework, see common classification systems.

This list stays open. Send a correction or an addition with a source and it goes in.

Sources & Further Reading