2008

The 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 30th, 2008. It was held at the Grand Hyatt Washington, and 288 spellers participated.

Sameer Mishra joined the Bee’s Word Panel in 2019 and also serves as a Judge.

Learn more

About the 81st Bee

Champion

Sameer Mishra

West Lafayette, Indiana

Sameer Mishra, age 13, sponsored by the Journal & Courier, won the $30,000 prize by correctly spelling the word “guerdon.”

Sameer earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics from Columbia University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an investor at Ananym Capital Management.

Location

Grand Hyatt Washington

at the Independence Ballroom

Winning Word

guerdon(n)

GUR-dun

something that one has earned or gained : a reward : a recompense : a requital.

This word is from a German word that went to French then English.

OFFICIALS

Directors

Paige P. Kimble

Judges

  • Mary Brooks
  • Blake Giddens
  • Dr. Sandra C. Harrell
  • Dr. Ed Low
  • Dr. Balu Natarajan
  • Dr. Michelle M. Mehta
  • James G. Lowe
  • Barrie Trinkle

Pronouncers

  • Dr. Jacques Bailly
  • Dr. Brian Sietsema

SPELLER ROSTERS

  • Christian Ackmann
  • Austin Ahlstrom
  • Neil Alacha
  • Mariel Andersen
  • Jacob Annal
  • Kennyi Aouad
  • Carly Arnold
  • Easun Arunachalam
  • James Bailey
  • Katharine Bailey
  • Xavier Barnes
  • Natasha Begay
  • Brittany Belkiewitz
  • Russ Bian
  • Andrew Bicigo
  • David Bippes
  • Rosalie Blacklock
  • Samara Blakeney
  • Curtis Bogetti
  • Jeffrey Bridges
  • Keiko Bridwell
  • Austin Brinkley
  • Morgan Brown
  • Emma Brownlie
  • Gillian Butdorf
  • Peter Caballes
  • Julianna Canabal-Rodriguez
  • Joshua Caplinger
  • Marissa Carlson
  • Hannah Cassidy
  • Rachel Castle
  • Courtney Chambers
  • Sidharth Chand
  • Neetu Chandak
  • Ajay Chatrath
  • Shradha Chhabria
  • Hannah Chi
  • So-Young Chung
  • Catherine Cloetta
  • Joshua Cohen
  • Caleb Cohen
  • Catherine “Cat” Cojocaru
  • Katelyn Colter
  • Andrew Cooper
  • Natalie Cosens
  • Elyse Cox
  • Molly Crawford
  • Jackson Crist
  • Kaylee D’Amico
  • Aldrin D’silva
  • Pierce Dageforde
  • Priyanka Damarla
  • Austin Davis
  • Nicolas de Leon
  • Robertha Dean-McIntosh
  • Santos DeBarros
  • Anna Delamerced
  • Qian (Cathy) Deng
  • Emily Dick
  • Bethany Dickey
  • Anqi Dong
  • Samuel Dowlen
  • Kate Dubis
  • Wesley Ducote
  • Michael Dugan
  • Sade Dunbar
  • John Michael Eaton
  • Tessa Eckley
  • Yassine El Yousfi
  • Adrianna Ellison
  • Joy Endicott
  • Amanda Espericueta
  • Matthew Evans
  • Shakeika Everett
  • Baron Fenwick
  • Connor Flexman
  • Trevor Fonvergne
  • Destiny Franklin
  • Kendra Frey
  • Matt Gabriele
  • Swathi Ganesh
  • Ross Garrity
  • April Gaydos
  • Nick Gellerman
  • Hannah Gerdes
  • Crystal Gibbons
  • Ross Gibson
  • Michael Girbino
  • Mallika Govindan
  • Nicholas Greatens
  • Anna Beatrice Grimaldo
  • James Guerra
  • Mylieneth Guiang
  • Sachith Gullapalli
  • Adrian Gunawan
  • Stephanie Guzmán
  • Ezekiel Haenelt
  • Audrey Hale
  • Deanna Hambleton
  • Scott Harrell
  • Stephen Hartline
  • Sriram Hathwar
  • Hannah Henderson
  • Brent Henderson
  • Grace Hernandez
  • Erika Hill
  • Jonathan Hohstadt
  • Austin Hoke
  • Anna Hughes
  • Lance Hungar
  • Julie Huttemann
  • Anthony “Tony” Incorvati
  • Anahita Iyer
  • Jahnavi Iyer
  • Torey Jackson
  • Meadow Jackson
  • Arushi Jauhari
  • Martha Jessee
  • Willie Johnson
  • Kaitlyn Johnston
  • Shiva Kangeyan
  • Josephine Kao
  • Katherine Kappelmann
  • Sathwik Katragadda
  • Changlin Ke
  • Seth Keller
  • Keertan Kini
  • Cory Klingsporn
  • Matthew Koh
  • Anne-Marie Kommers
  • Allison Koontz
  • Sanjay Kottapalli
  • Maria Isabel Kubabom
  • Lauren LaBaumbard
  • Dan LaChapelle
  • Nick Lade
  • Émilie Lafleur
  • Elizabeth Lagatta
  • Serena Laine-Lobsinger
  • Victoria Lan
  • Karen Laska
  • Cheyenne Lawrence
  • Jordan Lay
  • Andrew Lay
  • Hunter Lehmann
  • He Li
  • Shannon Lin
  • Serene Macaraig
  • Marie Mach
  • Rahul Malayappan
  • Angela Mamaril
  • Matthew Marley
  • Nicole Martin
  • Cherry Mathis
  • Tisya Mavuram
  • Jason Mayer
  • Brian Mazurek
  • Alexis McCall
  • Joshua McFall
  • Bryson McKee
  • Vincent Medina
  • Jacob Meggesto
  • Christian Menendez
  • Quinn Meyer
  • Samantha Mihalik
  • Calvin Miller
  • Maggie Millican
  • Andrea Mae Mirasol
  • Sameer Mishra
  • Nelson Moore
  • Kyle Mou
  • Ashwin Nair
  • Talmage Nakamoto
  • Samia Nawaz
  • Nithin Nedumthakady
  • Thomas North
  • Timothy Nowak
  • Katie Nye
  • Megan O’Brien
  • Tegan Odland
  • Imogen Page
  • Mouctika Paluri
  • Tommy Panek
  • Mee Jin Park
  • Erin Parker
  • Allyn Pasiliao
  • Priya Patel
  • Ashley Peltier
  • Veronica Penny
  • Austin Pineda
  • Rachel Pinkerton
  • Cheyenne Plaster
  • Jeremy Pople
  • Karla Quezada
  • Bianca Quintanilla
  • Avvinash Radakrishnan
  • Anjali Raghuram
  • Emily Randall
  • Scott Remer
  • Meghan Reynolds
  • Chris Rice
  • Jennifer Riedford
  • Megan Ring
  • Nicholas Riordan
  • Andrew Risinger
  • Keith Roberts III
  • Nicholas Rushlow
  • Danielle Sahud
  • Rebecca Scally
  • Hannah Schill
  • Tristan Schrot
  • Claudia Schulze
  • Jonathan Schut
  • Pamela Self
  • Jiwon Seo
  • Megan Settle
  • Sylvia Shacker
  • Nabil Shaikh
  • Jessica Shakesprere
  • Akshat Shekhar
  • Kavya Shivashankar
  • Breanna Siemens
  • Chris Sigurdson
  • Madison Simpson
  • Siraj Sindhu
  • Gaurav Sirdeshpande
  • Sathiyan Sivakumaran
  • Isaac Skarstedt
  • Jake Sliman
  • Rose Sloan
  • Jake Smith
  • Alec Smith
  • Charles Smith
  • Rebecca Snodgrass
  • Gina Solomito
  • Justin Song
  • Raymond Soriano
  • Shantanu Srivatsa
  • Rachel Stadder
  • Stephanie Stancell
  • Samantha Stewart
  • Caitlyn Stewart
  • Elysa Stone
  • Walker Storz
  • Bethany Strom
  • Michelle-Ann Tan
  • Andrew Tan
  • Emily Temple-Wood
  • Anthony Tenney
  • Ashley Terry
  • Tia Thomas
  • JoAnn Thomas-Lewis
  • Christian Thompson
  • Carl Torola Jr.
  • Rose Tracy
  • Mark Travor
  • Grace Tsai
  • Logan Turner
  • Joshua Derek Ursua
  • Adam Van Buren
  • Vaibhav Vavilala
  • Kaitlyn Victor
  • Darcy Vines
  • Michael Viola
  • Katelyn Voss
  • Kara Walla
  • Mikayla Walsh
  • Gil Walzer
  • Cody Wang
  • Caitlin Wardell
  • Lacey Ware
  • Spencer Warriner
  • Maria Wasilewski
  • Madeline Weiner
  • Rebecca Willett
  • Drew Wilson
  • Brianna Wise
  • Mitchell Wortman
  • Jonathan Xu
  • Alan Xu
  • Corrine Yap
  • Nishat Yasmin
  • Lillian “Lillie” Young
  • Jimmy Yuan
  • Zachary Zagorski
  • Elizabeth Zhang
  • Mayee Zhu
  • Jessica Zung

* Winner
** Runner-Up