What's the correct term for “number of std deviations” away from a mean

Question

I've computed the mean & variance of a set of values, and I want to pass along the value that represents the # of std deviations away from mean for each number in the set. Is there a better term for this, or should I just call it num_of_std_devs_from_mean ...

Answer 1

Some suggestions here: Standard score (z-value, z-score, normal score)

but "sigma" or "stdev_distance" would probably be clearer

Answer 2

The standard deviation is usually denoted with the letter σ (sigma). Personally, I think more people will understand what you mean if you do say number of standard deviations.

As for a variable name, as long as you comment the declaration you could shorten it to std_devs.

Answer 3

sigma is what you want, I think.

Answer 4

That is normalizing your values. You could just refer to it as the normalized value. Maybe norm_val would be more appropriate.

Answer 5

I've always heard it as number of standard deviations

Answer 6

Deviation may be what you're after. Deviation is the distance between a data point and the mean.