Hurdy-gurdy twenty-three different forms, and there is still no standardized design today. The six-stringed French "vielle à roue" is the best known and most common sort. A number of regional forms developed, but outside France the instrument was considered a folk instrument and there were no schools of construction that could have determined a standard form. There are two primary body styles for contemporary instruments: guitar-bodied and lute-backed. Both forms are found in French-speaking areas, while guitar-bodied instruments are the general form elsewhere. The box form of the "simphonia" is also commonly found among players of early music and historical re-enactors.
Hurdy-gurdy is sometimes more descriptively called a "wheel fiddle" in English, but this term is rarely used among players of the instrument. Another possible derivation is from the Hungarian "hegedűs" (Slovenian variant "hrgadus") meaning a fiddle. In France, the instrument is known as "vielle à roue" (wheel fiddle) or simply "vielle" (even though there is another instrument with this name), while in the French-speaking regions of Belgium it is also known in local dialects as "vièrlerète/vièrlète" or "tiesse di dj'va" ('horse's head'). The Flemings and the Dutch call it a "draailier", which is similar to its German name, "Drehleier". An alternate