Code that I wrote in 2007 for our Strange Horizons fiction-submission-handling system, to parse an author’s name into a forename and a surname.
In 2023, I’m more inclined to think that the whole project of trying to programmatically parse human names is misguided. For more on that, see “Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names.” That said, I’m leaving this code up in case it’s of use to anyone.
// Name normalization function in PHP: splits a full name into
// forename and surname, taking into account various common
// surname prefixes and suffixes.
//
// By Jed Hartman (logos@kith.org), 11 February 2007.
// For more info, see:
// https://www.kith.org/jed/2007/02/11/name-parser/
//
// This code is in the public domain; no rights reserved. Use as you like.
//
// Parameter: Pass in a string containing a full name.
// Returns: A 2-element array. First element is fore-and-middle-names;
// second element is surname including prefixes and suffixes, if any.
// (Note that it's impossible to distinguish between a two-word
// forename and a first-name-plus-middle-name, so we don't even try.)
// Initials are normalized to have periods and spaces after them.
//
// 2008-01-19: Cleaned up handling of periods, "Mr", and "Mrs". Note
// that "Jr" and "jr" now automatically get periods added. If I want
// to allow no-period versions of those, I could go through the
// passed-in name and keep track of what pieces have periods, but I
// don't think that's worth doing.
//
// 2009-10-20: Added "du". Considered adding a special case where if
// a name has only two parts, then prefixes are treated as first
// names, but decided against it; for example, I think "Von Foo" is
// meant to be a unitary name, not first + last. So not gonna do this.
//
// 2010-10-14: Added "Vander".
//
// Bugs:
//
// * Doesn't handle various non-Anglo approaches to naming, as in
// names like "Garcia y Lopez". To handle such cases, if you're
// manually reviewing names before you call this function, you can
// manually insert underscores between name elements that should
// stay together: "Jaime Garcia_y_Lopez".
//
// * Doesn't handle cases where a surname prefix is used as a
// middle name, as in names like "Joshua Ben David". Again,
// you can manually insert underscores: "Joshua_Ben David".
//
// * Added in 2023: This entire endeavor is probably a bad way to
// go about things; for more info, see
// https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/
// But I’m nonetheless leaving this code available in case it’s
// of use in certain limited contexts.
//
// TODO:
//
// * Consider replacing my whole system with this code:
// http://alphahelical.com/code/misc/nameparse/?misc/nameparse
// Or with this code:
// http://jasonpriem.com/human-name-parse/
//
// * Consider generating capitalization and punctuation variants
// for prefixes and suffixes rather than listing them all.
//
// * Clean up repetitive logic in middle of routine.
//
// * Remove other titles as well as "Dr."
//
// * Find a more elegant way to handle apostrophes in forenames.
//
// * Don't treat non-ASCII characters and parentheses as word breaks.
function normalize_name($full_name)
{
$last_name_prefixes = array ("ben", "da", "Da", "Dal", "de", "De", "del", "Del", "den", "der", "Di", "du", "e", "la", "La", "Le", "Mc", "San", "St", "Ste", "van", "Van", "Vander", "vel", "von", "Von");
$last_name_suffixes = array ("Jr", "jr", "Sr", "sr", "2", "II", "III", "IV");
$add_periods = array ("Ste", "St", "Jr", "jr", "Sr", "sr");
$full_name = trim($full_name);
$full_name = preg_replace("/]+>/", "", $full_name); // Remove x-flowed and other tags.
$full_name = preg_replace("/.+$/", "", $full_name); // Remove final periods.
$full_name = preg_replace("/./", " ", $full_name); // Replace periods with spaces.
$full_name = preg_replace("/ +/", " ", $full_name); // Replace runs of spaces with single spaces.
$all_names = preg_split("/[ xA0]/", $full_name); // Split on space or option-space.
$last_name = array_pop($all_names);
$second_to_last_word = array_pop($all_names);
if (is_null($second_to_last_word))
{
return array ($last_name, ""); // If only one name, consider it to be a "first" (personal) name.
}
if (in_array($last_name, $last_name_suffixes)) // Doesn't account for multiple suffixes; fix eventually, but v. rare.
{
$last_name = $second_to_last_word . " " . $last_name;
$second_to_last_word = array_pop($all_names);
}
if (is_null($second_to_last_word))
{
return array ($last_name, ""); // If only one name, consider it to be a "first" (personal) name.
}
while (in_array($second_to_last_word, $last_name_prefixes))
{
$last_name = $second_to_last_word . " " . $last_name;
$second_to_last_word = array_pop($all_names);
}
if (is_null($second_to_last_word))
{
return array ($last_name, ""); // If only one name, consider it to be a "first" (personal) name.
}
$last_name = preg_replace("/_/", " ", $last_name); // Change underscores to spaces, for multiword last names
array_push($all_names, $second_to_last_word); // Put latest unused name back on stack
$first_name = join(" ", $all_names);
$first_name = preg_replace("/_/", " ", $first_name); // Change underscores to spaces, for multiword first names
$first_name = preg_replace("/^Dr.? ?b/", "", $first_name); // Remove "Dr." from start of name
$first_name = preg_replace("/^Mrs.? ?b/", "", $first_name); // Remove "Mrs." from start of name
$first_name = preg_replace("/^Mr.? ?b/", "", $first_name); // Remove "Mr." from start of name
// TODO: change the above to an array of titles to be removed, and iterate through the array.
// Change all initials to have periods and spaces after them.
// Apostrophes cause problems with the word-boundary test, so temporarily change them.
// This is inelegant; should probably come back and figure out how to do it right at some point.
$first_name = preg_replace("/'/", "QXZQXZQXZ", $first_name);
$first_name = preg_replace("/b([A-Z])([A-Z])(.|b)/", "$1 $2", $first_name); // Two cap letters followed by period or space
$first_name = preg_replace("/b([A-Z])(.|b)/", "$1.", $first_name); // Single letter followed by period or space
$first_name = preg_replace("/QXZQXZQXZ/", "'", $first_name);
// Now add back in any missing periods.
foreach ($add_periods as $word)
{
$first_name = preg_replace("/$wordb/", "$word.", $first_name);
$last_name = preg_replace("/$wordb/", "$word.", $last_name);
}
return array ($first_name, $last_name);
}