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~160k first names ~100k last names Out of 7-8 billion people this is really all (or most) of the first and last names? We aren’t a very creative species I gue

~160k first names ~100k last names Out of 7-8 billion people this is really all (or most) of the first and last names? We aren’t a very creative species I guess. I especially would have expected the number of first names to be at least an order of magnitude larger.

chmod775 6y ago
It's not. Not even close. It doesn't even have my last name for instance. And that's a western name. Then there's also the following issues: - The list contains mostly names in basic latin script, which already excludes most of the world population. - It's also pretty bold of the author to assume that everyone even has a "first" and a "last" name. Not all names work like that. - The list contains a bunch of extraneous stuff like "�" and "</pre></body></html> (>\k�� " and "रामकिशो&" - The list is converted to lowercase. You can't just change the capitalization of names and expect them to be the same. Not all scripts work like that. - In some languages/cultures a first/last name could be pretty much any word you can find in a dictionary, or a combination of them. You'd pretty much need to add that language's entire dictionary. I could go on but instead I'll just link to this: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
- t0astbread 6y ago
  You're right but I don't think staying accurate is all that important in this case. Judging by the "Features" section this seems to be mostly concerned with recognizing names in strings which means you can discard some extra information as long as you can still accurately match names without too many false positives. I can't say anything about exhaustiveness.
PeterisP 6y ago
Many people prefer popular first names. For example, there are probably more than 150 million people with the first name Muhammad or some spelling variation thereof.
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  That has nothing to do with 'preferring a popular first name', that is a part of how people are named according to lineage in islam.

chmod775 6y ago

It's not. Not even close. It doesn't even have my last name for instance. And that's a western name. Then there's also the following issues: - The list contains mostly names in basic latin script, which already excludes most of the world population. - It's also pretty bold of the author to assume that everyone even has a "first" and a "last" name. Not all names work like that. - The list contains a bunch of extraneous stuff like "�" and "</pre></body></html> (>\k�� " and "रामकिशो&" - The list is converted to lowercase. You can't just change the capitalization of names and expect them to be the same. Not all scripts work like that. - In some languages/cultures a first/last name could be pretty much any word you can find in a dictionary, or a combination of them. You'd pretty much need to add that language's entire dictionary. I could go on but instead I'll just link to this: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...

t0astbread 6y ago
You're right but I don't think staying accurate is all that important in this case. Judging by the "Features" section this seems to be mostly concerned with recognizing names in strings which means you can discard some extra information as long as you can still accurately match names without too many false positives. I can't say anything about exhaustiveness.

PeterisP 6y ago

Many people prefer popular first names. For example, there are probably more than 150 million people with the first name Muhammad or some spelling variation thereof.

CyberDildonics 6y ago
That has nothing to do with 'preferring a popular first name', that is a part of how people are named according to lineage in islam.