mkname¶

mkname is a Python package for building names by using other names as building blocks.

Contents:

What Does mkname Do?¶

mkname uses a database of names to randomly generate names:

>>> import mkname
>>>
>>> mkname.pick_name(kind='surname')
['Phan']
>>> mkname.pick_name(kind='given', gender='male', num_names=4)
['Henry', 'Hector', 'Jimmie', 'Giovanni']
>>> mkname.create_compound_name(culture='United States', gender='male')
['Damuel']
>>> mkname.create_syllable_name(4)
['Betmahuret']

If you just want to generate a name and you don’t want to write any code around generating it, mkname can also be run from the command line:

$ mkname pick
Cheryl
$ mkname compound
Awilson

You can access help on using mkname from the command line by using the -h option:

$ mkname -h

usage: mkname [-h] mode ...

Generate a random names or read data from a names database.

positional arguments:
...

Features¶

The main features of mkname are:

Select a random name from the names database.
Modify generated names with mod functions.
Customize name generation by creating your own names database.
Add name generation to your Python code with the mkname package.
Generate names at the command line with the mkname tool.

Installation¶

mkname is available for install from PyPI with pip or your favorite package manager:

$ pip3 install mkname

The source code is available on GitHub if you’d rather install it that way: mkname.

mkname and Cultural Bias¶

Names are influenced by the culture and experience of those doing the naming. What sounds like a plausible name to me may not sound like a plausible name to you. Even worse, what seems like an acceptable name to my may be offensive to you. mkname is sticking pieces of names together at random, it’s very possible the output could have undesirable connotations in its final context.

The default names database supplied with mkname is unavoidably biased by my culture, experience, and the data I could find. To make mkname more useful to more people, it also has the ability to use custom names databases you create. The mkname.tools module and the mkname_tools command line tool have features to help with this.

There are a few concepts like “letters,” “consonants,” and “vowels” that are baked in right now but may not work for all languages and cultures. If you find these are interfering with your use of mkname, please feel free to open an issue on it. I can’t promise anything because I’m just one person doing this on my free time, but I’ll see what I can do.

mkname Test Package¶

Testing is automated with a combination of make, pytest, and tox. To run a quick set of tests that just check against your current version of Python:

make test

To get the verbose output:

make testv

To run the full suite of pre-commit tests:

make pre