real-name

A lightweight utility that checks if a string matches any name that has been used in the United States from 1880 to 2008, based on Social Security Administration data.

This also works for names from other countries. Check out the full dataset here to see for yourself.

Version 2.0.0

I actually started using this package to extract names from a dataset of email addresses.

• Updated to use ESM syntax
• Changed to use JSON file with names grouped by length for faster lookups

Here's a quick YouTube video I made showing how I used this package to extract names from a dataset of email addresses.

Installation

npm install real-name

Usage

import isName from 'real-name';

// Basic name checking
console.log(isName('John')); // true
console.log(isName('Fruitcake')); // false

// Optional accessory to combine with isName
// Not my package, need to install it separately
// And update it to use ESM syntax
import wordExists from 'word-exists';

// Stricter filtering by combining with word-exists
function isValidName(str) {
    return isName(str) && !wordExists(str);
}

console.log(isValidName('Ace')); // false (it's a word too, not just a name)
console.log(isValidName('John')); // true (it's just a name, not a word)

Features

• Checks against a comprehensive database of US names from 1880-2008
• Case-insensitive matching
• Handles whitespace trimming
• Zero dependencies
• Simple, straightforward API
• Optional combination with word-exists package for stricter filtering

API

isName(string)

Returns true if the provided string matches any name in the database, false otherwise.

Parameters

• string (String): The text to check against the name database

Returns

• (Boolean): true if the string matches a known name, false otherwise

License

ISC

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome! Please feel free to submit them on the GitHub repository.