The Name Normalization API
The Name Normalization API is designed to provide a simple way of normalizing arbitary name data. It's goal is to correct and format name strings into a computer readable format. This API also attempts to guess gender and provide a normalization confidence factor. The API returns an array of names as it attempts to parse multiple names from a single record. Note that this API does have rate limiting to prevent abuse.
The request to our API is a standard HTTP GET request as follows:
http://api.reversesouthafrica.com/namenormalizer.php?format=FORMAT&q=PHONE
Parameters
format (required)
valid options are phps, json, xml.
key (optional)
32 characters long, provided when you join the developer program
q (required)
name string to process
Example Query Results
JSON
http://api.reversesouthafrica.com/namenormalizer.php?format=json&q=john%20smith
result
{"status":"valid","result":[{"original":"john smith","prefix":"","first":"John","middle":"","last":"Smith","nickname":"","suffix":"","gender":"M","confidence":90.48,"formatted":"John Smith"}]}
XML
http://api.reversesouthafrica.com/namenormalizer.php?format=xml&q=john%20smith
result
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?><record><status>valid</status><result><0><original>john smith</original><prefix></prefix><first>John</first><middle></middle><last>Smith</last><nickname></nickname><suffix></suffix><gender>M</gender><confidence>90.48</confidence><formatted>John Smith</formatted></0></result></record>
PHPS
http://api.reversesouthafrica.com/namenormalizer.php?format=phps&q=john%20smith
result
a:2:{s:6:"status";s:5:"valid";s:6:"result";a:1:{i:0;a:10:{s:8:"original";s:10:"john smith";s:6:"prefix";s:0:"";s:5:"first";s:4:"John";s:6:"middle";s:0:"";s:4:"last";s:5:"Smith";s:8:"nickname";s:0:"";s:6:"suffix";s:0:"";s:6:"gender";s:1:"M";s:10:"confidence";d:90.4800000000000039790393202565610408782958984375;s:9:"formatted";s:10:"John Smith";}}}
API Support
Please contact support@reversesouthafrica.com if you are having trouble implementing our API