Name Issues

[jrod01]

• Currently the name comes as one single field, so we have to break it up. I've been splitting at spaces and assuming that the first is the first name and the last is the last name. It's possible I should be doing some combinations for combined first names, for example, or looking under middle (maiden?) names as last names. If you guys have any way of knowing what's a first or last name, and could indicate that, that'd definitely make things easier. Otherwise it's engineering on my end, which is fine, I just won't get to it for a little while.
• Similarly, we think we probably have a name/nickname problem. If you give us Alex and we have Alexander, that could be leading to trouble. Is there a way you guys could construct a nickname dictionary and include a list of possible nicknames? We could obviously also do that, but we definitely don't have the staff to do that anytime in like the next mo

[krainboltgreene]

The API Match Objects will be changed to include a names field, which will contain an array of possible names and nicknames we’ve picked up. There will be a canonical name we think the person has and the list. The objects for names will be split as you’ve asked, into family, personal, and alias. See the API documentation for more details, as this should roll out in the next 12 hours. I suggest using the Sellers linguistic matching algo though for best results; it can easily match up Alex to Alexander and should be available in library format.

[rshorey]

As of right now, the "names" field seems to be empty. Please let me know when that's been fixed and I should switch my code.

[krainboltgreene]

Hey @rshorey, sorry for the late reply.

There are two fields for the name concept on every person: name and names.

The former is our canonical verified name that we've researched and come up with. The latter is possible names, translations, alternate spellings, and full versions of the word.

Some persons don't have possible names. Is there a specific match you're having issues with?