Parsing culturally diverse names

• US 20070005586A1
• Filed: 03/30/2005
• Published: 01/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gillam, Richard, Patman, Frankie, Shaefer, Leonard
• Application Number:
  US11/092,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005586A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing

Abstract

A disclosed parsing system automatically parses culturally diverse names using culture-specific parsing algorithms. The culture-specific parsing algorithms may use statistical information describing name phrases of the name to separate the name phrases into a title, a given name, a surname, and a qualifier. In one or more systems, the validity of a parse of a name is determined, and names for which an invalid parse has been generated may be parsed again. Multiple names indicated by a conjoined name construct may be parsed individually. Name phrases that may include multiple tokens of a name are identified and used as a basis for parsing and other processing of the name.

Claims

1. A method for parsing names, the method comprising:

enabling access to multiple parsing algorithms for parsing name elements into one or more types of elements, the multiple parsing algorithms including separate parsing algorithms that respectively correspond to at least one of multiple known cultures;

receiving a name that includes one or more elements;

accessing, for the name, an indication of at least one culture from among the multiple known cultures;

selecting one of the multiple parsing algorithms based on the indication of the culture of the name;

parsing the one or more elements of the name into element types using the selected parsing algorithm; and

providing an indication of the element types of the one or more elements.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein accessing the indication of the culture of the name comprises:

detecting a characteristic of at least one of the elements of the name; and

determining the indication of the culture of the name based on the characteristics detected.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing a database providing a statistical indication of a type of an element, and wherein parsing is also based on the statistical indication.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a validity score for the parsing of the elements.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

comparing the validity score to a threshold; and

determining whether to reorder the one or more elements based on a result from the comparing.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising

determining to reorder the one or more elements based on the validity score;

accessing a database providing statistical indications of the types of the one or more elements; and

reordering the one or more elements using the statistical indications.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising parsing the reordered elements of the name into element types using the selected parsing algorithm.

8. The method of claim 4 further comprising providing an indication of the validity score.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein parsing the one or more elements of the name into element types comprises classifying each of the one or more elements as a title, a given name, a surname, or a qualifier.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing statistics describing at least one of the one or more elements of the name.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the name comprises receiving a personal name.

12. A method for identifying a valid parse of a name, the method comprising:

receiving a name that includes one or more elements;

parsing the one or more elements of the name into element types;

determining whether the element types of the one or more elements represent a valid parse of the name; and

providing an indication of whether the element types of the one or more elements represent a valid parse of the name.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining whether the element types represent a valid parse of the name comprises determining a validity score for the element types.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

comparing the validity score to a threshold; and

determining whether to reorder the one or more elements based on a result from the comparing.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising

determining to reorder the one or more elements based on the validity score;

accessing a database providing statistical indications of the types of the one or more elements; and

reordering the one or more elements using the statistical indications.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising parsing the reordered elements of the name into element types.

17. A method for processing a name, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a name that includes multiple tokens;

accessing an indication of a culture of the name;

identifying one or more name phrases included in the name based on the culture of the name, at least one of the identified name phrases having more than one token;

designating the identified name phrases as an input to a subsequent name processing operation; and

processing the name using the identified name phrases as an input to the subsequent name processing operation.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein processing the name comprises parsing the name.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein identifying the one or more name phrases comprises:

classifying each of the multiple tokens in the name as a prefix, suffix, or stem based on the culture of the name; and

grouping the classified tokens into name phrases based on the classification of the tokens and the culture of the name.

20. A method for parsing a conjoined name, the method comprising:

receiving a conjoined name construct that includes multiple elements;

identifying multiple names indicated by the conjoined name construct, each of the multiple names including one or more elements, at least one of the multiple elements of the conjoined name construct being included as an element in each of the multiple names;

parsing the one or more elements of at least one name of the multiple names into element types; and

providing an indication of the element types of the one or more elements of the at least one name.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

enabling access to multiple parsing algorithms for parsing name elements into one or more types of elements, the multiple parsing algorithms including separate parsing algorithms that respectively correspond to at least one of multiple known cultures;

accessing, for the at least one name, an indication of at least one culture from among the multiple known cultures; and

selecting one of the multiple parsing algorithms based on the indication of the culture of the at least one name;

wherein parsing the one or more elements of the at least one name comprises parsing the one or more elements using the selected parsing algorithm.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising accessing a database providing a statistical indication of a type of an element of the at least one name, and wherein parsing is also based on the statistical indication.