CRJ200 captain reports being confused by fix names during arrival and descent on the beert 4 RNAV to...

Narrative:

Flying Beert4 RNAV arrival into mem was assigned 10;000 at 'rgill.' [we] mistakenly planned descent to be at 10;000 ft early at walnut ridge (arg); which looks like it could be 'argil [rgill].' descent was steep and apparently ATC has seen this happen before because the controller told us we were probably mistaking arg for rgill. We shallowed our descent and proceeded uneventfully. I was not careful enough making sure I was looking at the correct points on our arrival. The arrival also has three points on it that can be easily confused: arg (walnut ridge); rgill; and gillmore (gqe). I'll be more careful in checking waypoints given. More distinct names could greatly alleviate confusion for those not used to the area.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 Captain reports being confused by fix names during arrival and descent on the BEERT 4 RNAV to MEM. ARG is confused with RGILL and descent is initiated to make a crossing restriction issued for RGILL at ARG.

Narrative: Flying Beert4 RNAV arrival into MEM was assigned 10;000 at 'RGILL.' [We] mistakenly planned descent to be at 10;000 FT early at Walnut Ridge (ARG); which looks like it could be 'ARGIL [RGILL].' Descent was steep and apparently ATC has seen this happen before because the Controller told us we were probably mistaking ARG for RGILL. We shallowed our descent and proceeded uneventfully. I was not careful enough making sure I was looking at the correct points on our arrival. The arrival also has three points on it that can be easily confused: ARG (Walnut Ridge); RGILL; and Gillmore (GQE). I'll be more careful in checking waypoints given. More distinct names could greatly alleviate confusion for those not used to the area.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	984125
Time
Date	201112
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZME.ARTCC
State Reference	TN
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types

CRJ200 captain reports being confused by fix names during arrival and descent on the beert 4 RNAV to mem. Arg is confused with rgill and descent is initiated to make a crossing restriction issued for rgill at arg.