Human Name lookup / translation

Question

I am working on a requirement to match people from different databases. One tricky problem is variance in names like Bob - Robert, Jim - James, Lizzy - Elizabeth etc across databases.

Is there a lookup/translation available for this kind of a requirement.

Answer 1

You'd need to implement a lookup table with the alternate names in it:

Base      | Alternate
----------------
Robert    | Bob
Elizabeth | Liz 
Elizabeth | Lizzy
Elizabeth | Beth

Then search the database for the base name and all alternates. You'll end up with a number of multiple matches which will then need to be checked to see if they really match based on a comparison of whatever other data you have in the two databases. Maybe the dates of the records in each database could be used - records entered close in time indicate the same person.

Answer 2

Take a look at my answer (as well as the others) here:

Tools for matching name/address data