Name API

A person's name, split, cased, and checked.

Pass a name the way a form field gave it to you. GRACE HOPPER, smith, john, and Dr. Jane Smith Jr. all come back split into first, middle, and last with prefix and suffix set aside, proper cased, and in first-name-first order.

Role words, company markers, and placeholders answer valid: false. Junk is a valid question, so it is a 200, never a 404.

Parse

GET

api.parseapi.com/name/{name}

First, middle, last, prefix, suffix, casing, gender, salutation

curl "https://api.parseapi.com/name/GRACE%20HOPPER" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

{
  "name": "Grace Hopper",
  "valid": true,
  "prefix": null,
  "first": "Grace",
  "middle": null,
  "last": "Hopper",
  "suffix": null,
  "gender": "female",
  "salutation": "Ms"
}

curl "https://api.parseapi.com/name/Smith,%20John" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

{
  "name": "John Smith",
  "valid": true,
  "prefix": null,
  "first": "John",
  "middle": null,
  "last": "Smith",
  "suffix": null,
  "gender": "male",
  "salutation": "Mr"
}

curl "https://api.parseapi.com/name/test%20test" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

{
  "name": "test test",
  "valid": false,
  "prefix": null,
  "first": null,
  "middle": null,
  "last": null,
  "suffix": null,
  "gender": null,
  "salutation": null
}

Response fields

name: Cleaned full name, comma flip resolved and proper cased
valid: Looks like a person's name. Role words, company markers, and placeholders answer false
prefix: Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, Prof, and friends, null when absent
first: First name
middle: Middle name or initial, null when absent
last: Last name, name particles included (de la Hoya), null on a single word
suffix: Jr, III, PhD class, null when absent
gender: male or female from first-name data, null when the name does not decide it
salutation: Mr or Ms from gender, null when gender is null

Casing

Recasing only runs on all-upper or all-lower input. Mixed case passed through as-is, so McIntyre stays McIntyre. Name particles glue to the last name and stay lowercase mid-name.

curl "https://api.parseapi.com/name/OSCAR%20DE%20LA%20HOYA" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

{
  "name": "Oscar de la Hoya",
  "valid": true,
  "prefix": null,
  "first": "Oscar",
  "middle": null,
  "last": "de la Hoya",
  "suffix": null,
  "gender": "male",
  "salutation": "Mr"
}

Gender

gender comes from a century of first-name records and only answers when the data decides it. Ambiguous first names like Taylor and Jordan return null. salutation follows gender: Mr, Ms, or null.

Questions? Email