emgee3/namecase

A Javascript library for fixing the capitalization of people's names.

NameCase

A Javascript library for fixing the capitalization of people's names.

It is heavily based on the Perl Lingua-EN-NameCase module.

It's always best to let the user capitalize their own name as there are too many variations to programmatically catch them all. However, when working with legacy databases, sometimes such a module is needed.

Usage

NameCase provides two functions:

NameCase.checkName() which returns true if the name is in all UPPERCASE or lowercase.

NameCase(string or array, { individualFields : boolean }) returns a properly capitalized name.

The option individualFields defaults to false which works best when the person's names are combined into a single field. If individualFields is set to true, it means you're passing in given and surnames separately. The only difference between these two options is with individualFields set to false, the first character is always capitalized.

Namecase can also be executed from the command line via namecase, which accepts data from stdin and outputs the formatted names to stdout.

Examples

Browser

<script source="namecase.js"></script>

<script>

  var name = "GEORGE WASHINGTON";

  if (NameCase.checkName(name)) {
    document.write(
      NameCase(name)
    );
  } else {
    document.write(name);
  }

</script>

Node

var nc = require('namecase');

String.prototype.toNameCase = function () {
  var name = this.toString();

  if (nc.checkName(name)) {
    return nc(name, { individualFields : true } );
  }
}

console.log("WILLIAM".toNameCase());
console.log("MCKINLEY".toNameCase());

Command line

Install with npm install -g namecase.

namecase < input.txt > ouput.txt

Meteor Integration

NameCase also includes Meteor integration. The NameCase function is available on the Client and Server and comes with a Template helper entitled NameCase.

<template name="templateName">
  {{ NameCase "abe lincoln" optionalNamecaseOptionsHelper }}
</template>

Template.templateName.helpers({
  optionalNamecaseOptionsHelper : function () {
    return { individualFields : true };
  }
});

namecase's Issues

<script source="namecase.js"></script> should be <script src...

Some edge cases

Hi thank you for the great library.

I have discovered some names, that the conversion produces unexpected results.

Here are my test cases:

[
"Yuri's",
"van den Thillart",
"Ruiz y Picasso,"
"Dato e Iradier",
"Mas i Gavarró",
"Fred XLIX",
"Yusof bin Ishak"
]

The names are taken from Ruby variant of the library: https://github.com/tenderlove/namecase/blob/master/test/test_namecase.rb

Here are the results:

  1) Capitalize name
       should convert "YURI'S" to "Yuri's":

      AssertionError: expected 'Yuri\'S' to equal 'Yuri\'s'
      + expected - actual

      -Yuri'S
      +Yuri's
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

  2) Capitalize name
       should convert "VAN DEN THILLART" to "van den Thillart":

      AssertionError: expected 'van Den Thillart' to equal 'van den Thillart'
      + expected - actual

      -van Den Thillart
      +van den Thillart
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

  3) Capitalize name
       should convert "RUIZ Y PICASSO" to "Ruiz y Picasso":

      AssertionError: expected 'Ruiz yPicasso' to equal 'Ruiz y Picasso'
      + expected - actual

      -Ruiz yPicasso
      +Ruiz y Picasso
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

  4) Capitalize name
       should convert "DATO E IRADIER" to "Dato e Iradier":

      AssertionError: expected 'Dato E Iradier' to equal 'Dato e Iradier'
      + expected - actual

      -Dato E Iradier
      +Dato e Iradier
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

  5) Capitalize name
       should convert "MAS I GAVARRÓ" to "Mas i Gavarró":

      AssertionError: expected 'Mas I Gavarró' to equal 'Mas i Gavarró'
      + expected - actual

      -Mas I Gavarró
      +Mas i Gavarró
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

  6) Capitalize name
       should convert "FRED XLIX" to "Fred XLIX":

      AssertionError: expected 'Fred Xlix' to equal 'Fred XLIX'
      + expected - actual

      -Fred Xlix
      +Fred XLIX
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

  7) Capitalize name
       should convert "YUSOF BIN ISHAK" to "Yusof bin Ishak":

      AssertionError: expected 'Yusof Bin Ishak' to equal 'Yusof bin Ishak'
      + expected - actual

      -Yusof Bin Ishak
      +Yusof bin Ishak
      
      at Context.it (app/utils/capitalize-name.spec.js:73:29)

An edge case

Hi thank you for the awesome library.

I have discovered a weird case that produces an unexpected result.

This is the name:

DAVID LA ROSE

This is the result:

David la Rose

The module should handle LA as “La” instead of “la”, shouldn't it? I think an speaking french contributor could be really helpful to clarify this, thanks.

Best Regards!!!

Name causes undefined

I was playing with the library. It works amazingly well for how simple it is. However, when I used the name João it returned undefined.

var nc = require('namecase')

String.prototype.toNameCase = function () {
  var name = this.toString()

  if (nc.checkName(name)) {
    return nc(name, { individualFields : true } )
  }
}

console.log("João".toNameCase())
// returns undefined

Common Abbreviations

I'm planning on using your parser to clean company names, which are littered with LLC, Inc, CO, etc.

Would a PR adding support for these acronyms be welcome? Perhaps it would be included in a different mode?