namefully

Person name handler

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import namefully from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/namefully';
</script>

README

namefully

npm version CircleCI Coverage Status MIT License

Description

A JavaScript utility for handling person names. Try it live.

Documentation

Check out the official documentation at https://namefully.netlify.app.

Motivation

Have you ever had to format a user's name in a particular order, way, or shape? Probably yes. If not, it will come at some point. Be patient.

Key features

  1. Offer supports for Latin alphabet, including other European ones (e.g., German, Greek, Cyrillic, Icelandic characters)
  2. Accept different data shapes as input
  3. Use of optional parameters to access advanced features
  4. Format a name as desired
  5. Offer support for prefixes and suffixes
  6. Access to names' initials
  7. Allow hyphenated names, including with apostrophes

Advanced features

  1. Alter the order of appearance of a name: by given name or surname
  2. Handle various subparts of a surname and given name
  3. Use tokens (separators) to reshape prefixes and suffixes
  4. Accept customized parsers (do it yourself)

Installation

npm i namefully

Dependencies

None

Related packages

This package is also available in Angular and React:

Usage

import { Namefully } from 'namefully'

const name = new Namefully('John Joe Smith')
console.log(name.format('L, f m')) // => SMITH, John Joe
console.log(name.zip()) // => John J. Smith

NOTE: This package comes with its own declaration file for TypeScript support.

Options and default values

Below are enlisted the options supported by namefully.

orderedBy

string: 'firstname' | 'lastname', default: firstname

Indicate in what order the names appear when set as a raw string values or string array values. That is, the first element/piece of the name is either the given name (e.g., Jon Snow) or the surname (e.g.,Snow Jon).

// 'Smith' is the surname in this raw string case
const name = new Namefully('Smith John Joe', { orderedBy: 'lastname' })
console.log(name.ln()) // => Smith

// 'Edison' is the surname in this string array case
const name = new Namefully(['Edison', 'Thomas'], { orderedBy: 'lastname' })
console.log(name.fn()) // => Thomas

NOTE: This option also affects all the other results of the API. In other words, the results will prioritize the order of appearance set in the first place for the other operations. Keep in mind that in some cases, it can be altered on the go. See the example below.

// 'Smith' is the surname in this raw string case
const name = new Namefully('Smith John Joe', { orderedBy: 'lastname' })
console.log(name.full()) // => Smith John Joe

// Now alter the order by choosing the given name first
console.log(name.full('firstname')) // => John Joe Smith

separator

enum: Separator, default: Separator.SPACE

Only valid for raw string values, this option indicates how to split the parts of a raw string name under the hood.

const name = new Namefully('Adam,Sandler', { separator: Separator.COMMA })
console.log(name.full()) // => Adam Sandler

titling

string: 'uk' | 'us', default: uk

Abide by the ways the international community defines an abbreviated title. American and Canadian English follow slightly different rules for abbreviated titles than British and Australian English. In North American English, titles before a name require a period: Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.. In British and Australian English, no periods are used in these abbreviations.

const name = new Namefully({
    prefix: 'Mr',
    firstname: 'John',
    lastname: 'Smith'
}, { titling: 'us' })
console.log(name.full()) // => Mr. John Smith
console.log(name.px()) // => Mr.

ending

boolean, default: false

Set an ending character after the full name (a comma before the suffix actually).

const name = new Namefully({
    prefix: 'Mr',
    firstname: 'John',
    lastname: 'Smith',
    suffix: 'PhD'
}, { ending: true })
console.log(name.full()) // => Mr John Smith, PhD

lastnameFormat

string: 'father' | 'mother' | 'hyphenated' | 'all', default: father

Defines the distinct formats to output a compound surname (e.g., Hispanic surnames).

import { Namefully, Firstname, Lastname } from 'namefully'

const fn = new Firstname('Jaden')
const ln = new Lastname('Smith', 'Pinkett')
const name = new Namefully([fn, ln], { lastnameFormat: 'hyphenated' })
console.log(name.full()) // => Jaden Smith-Pinkett

bypass

boolean, default: false

Skip all the validators (i.e., validation rules, regular expressions).

const name = new Namefully('2Pac Shakur', { bypass: true }) // normally would fail the regex
console.log(name.fn()) // => 2Pac

NOTE: This option can help to trick the utility and allow us to use it for unsupported languages or inner contents like prefixes or suffixes. For example, the Hindi characters will not pass the validation rules. Or, the Spanish equivalent for Mr => Sr will raise an exception as it is not part of the predefined prefixes.

parser

object, default: null

Customize your own parser to indicate the full name yourself.

import { Namefully, Firstname, Lastname, Parser } from 'namefully'

// Suppose you want to cover this '#' separator
class MyParser implements Parser<string> {
    constructor(public raw: string) {}
    parse() {
        const [fn, ln] = this.raw.split('#');
        return {
            firstname: new Firstname(fn),
            lastname: new Lastname(ln),
        }
    }
}

const name = new Namefully(null, { parser: new MyParser('Juan#Garcia') })
console.log(name.full()) // => Juan Garcia

To sum up, the default values are:

{
    "orderedBy": "firstname",
    "separator": " ",
    "titling": "uk",
    "ending": false,
    "lastnameFormat": "father",
    "bypass": false,
    "parser": null
}

Concepts and examples

The name standards used for the current version of this library are as follows:

[Prefix] Firstname [Middlename] Lastname [Suffix]

The opening [ and closing ] brackets mean that these parts are optional. In other words, the most basic/typical case is a name that looks like this: John Smith, where John is the Firstname and Smith, the Lastname.

NOTE: Do notice that the order of appearance matters and (as shown here) can be altered through configured parameters. By default, the order of appearance is as shown above and will be used as a basis for future examples and use cases.

Once imported, all that is required to do is to create an instance of Namefully and the rest will follow.

Basic cases

Let us take a common example:

Mr John Joe Smith PhD

So, this utility understands the name parts as follows:

  • typical name: John Smith
  • first name: John
  • middle name: Joe
  • last name: Smith
  • prefix: Mr
  • suffix: PhD
  • full name: Mr John Joe Smith PhD
  • birth name: John Joe Smith
  • zipped: John J. Smith
  • initials: J J S
  • usernames: jsmith, johnsmith, etc.

Limitations

namefully does not have support for certain use cases:

  • mononame: Plato. It can be tricked though by setting the mononame as both first and last name;
  • multiple surnames: De La Cruz, Da Vinci. You can also trick it using your own parsing method or setting separately each name part via the Nama|Name type or the string array input;
  • multiple prefixes: Prof. Dr. Einstein. An alternative would be to use the bypass option.

See the use cases for further details.

API

Name Arguments Default Returns Description
getPrefix none none string Gets the prefix part of the full name, if any
getFirstname includeAll true string Gets the first name part of the full name
getMiddlenames none none string[] Gets the middle name part of the full name, if any
getLastname format null string Gets the last name part of the full name
getSuffix none none string Gets the suffix part of the full name, if any
getFullname orderedBy null string Gets the full name
getBirthname orderedBy null string Gets the birth name, no prefix or suffix
getInitials orderedBy, withMid null, false string Gets the initials of the first and last names
describe nameType null Summary Gives some descriptive statistics of the characters' distribution.
shorten orderedBy null string Returns a typical name (e.g. first and last name)
compress limit, by 20, middlename string Compresses a name using different forms of variants
username none none string[] Suggests possible (randomly) usernames closest to the name
format how null string Formats the name as desired
zip nameType null string Shortens a full name
size none none number Returns the count of characters of the birth name, excluding punctuations
ascii options {} number[] Returns an ascii representation of each characters
to case none string Transforms a birth name to a specific title case
passwd nameType null string Returns a password-like representation of a name

Aliases

If you find the names of the methods somewhat too long, we provide aliases to make your life easier as a coder.

Method Aliases
getPrefix px
getSuffix sx
getFirstname fn
getLastname ln
getMiddlenames mn
getFullname full
getBirthname birth
getInitials inits
describe stats

Author

Developed by Ralph Florent.

License

The underlying content of this utility is licensed under MIT.