NAME

Lingua::EN::Nickname - Genealogical nickname matching (Liz=Beth)

SYNOPSIS

use Lingua::EN::Nickname;

# Equivalent first names?
$score= nickname_eq( $firstn_0, $firstn_1 );

# Full, expanded, name(s) 
@roots= nickroot( $firstn );

DESCRIPTION

Nicknames, alternate spellings, and alternate etymological derivations make checking first name equivalence nearly impossible. This module will tell you that 'Maggie', 'Peg', and 'Margaret' are all probably the same name.

SOURCES

• USGenWeb Project http://www.usgenweb.com/researchers/nicknames.html
• TNGenWeb Project http://www.tngenweb.usit.com/franklin/frannick.htm
• Chesnut Family Pages http://www.users.mis.net/~chesnut/pages/nicknams.htm
• Ultimate Family Tree http://www.uftree.com/UFT/HowTos/SettingOut/nickname1.html

TODO

• Hire a team of experts to provide a more scientific, statistically accurate Name Etymology source file.
• Create more phoenetically-based sub-regexes.
• Detect simple monosyllabic truncation nicknames, be less certain about them, but match more.
• Pay more attention to gender.

AUTHOR

Brian Lalonde, brian@webcoder.info

SEE ALSO

perl(1)