Last updated: October 12, 2026 · By Ned Walsch

Name Variant Generator

Type a name to list the nicknames, initials, surname spellings, accent-free and transliterated forms that records may use, each with one-click searches. It runs in your browser and sends the name nowhere.

A name variant generator turns one name into the other forms it may be filed under. That way a search does not miss a record because of a nickname, an initial or a dropped accent. This one produces ten kinds of variant, from nicknames in both directions (William and Bill) to passport-style spellings (Müller as Mueller) and username handles. It also lists sound-alike spellings checked with Double Metaphone (a sound-based name code). Each variant opens a quoted Google search, our People Search or our Username Search in one click. The idea comes from Bellingcat's Name Variant Search, a tool "for searching common variations of a human name" Bellingcat on GitHub. Our code is our own.

For finding records, not for screening or tracking people. Use the variants to avoid missed matches in research, due diligence, journalism, genealogy or a check of your own exposure. Do not use them to decide on a job, a tenancy, credit or insurance; in the US that is regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Do not use them to find someone who does not want to be found. A name match is never proof of identity.

Which name variants should you search, at a glance?

Each kind of variant catches a different kind of record. The examples below are the ones the generator produces for the sample names.

Variant type	Example	Where you may meet it
Nickname or formal name	William ↔ Bill, Will, Liam	Social profiles, reviews, informal mentions, death notices
Order and initials	O'Neil, William · W. O'Neil · William J. O'Neil	Court dockets, citations, lists sorted by surname
Two-part surname	García-López → García López, García, López	Spanish and Portuguese names; systems that drop hyphens
Particles and prefixes	van der Berg → Berg, vanderBerg	Dutch, German, French and Arabic names in alphabetical indexes
Apostrophes, Mc/Mac	O'Neil → ONeil, O Neil · McDonald → MacDonald	Forms that reject apostrophes; older records
Accents and scripts	Müller → Mueller, Muller · Дмитрий → Dmitriy, Dmitrii	Passports, bank and travel records, English-language media
Sound-alike spelling	O'Neil → O'Neill · Smith → Smyth	Typed or transcribed records, genealogy indexes
Maiden or married name	Anna Mueller + Brown → Anna Mueller-Brown, Anna Mueller née Brown	Wedding notices, obituaries, professional registers

How do you search every spelling of a name without missing records?

Work from the most complete form to the loosest, and keep a record of what you searched.

Start with what you know. Enter the name as you first saw it, plus any middle name or former surname. Bellingcat's alias-generator notes that initials may replace first or middle names and that surnames change at marriage. It adds that East Asian names are often written surname first alias-generator README.
Search in quotes. Each Google button puts the variant inside quotation marks, which Google Search Help describes as the way to search for an exact match Google Search Help. Add a city, school or employer after the quotes to narrow a common name.
Move to records and profiles. The People button opens our People Search with the first and last name filled in (accents removed). The Usernames button sends a compressed handle, such as williamoneil, to our Username Search.
Keep a log. Download the TXT or CSV file and mark each variant as you search it. You can then show which spellings you checked, including the ones that found nothing.
Confirm before you conclude. Two people can share any spelling. Confirm a match with independent details such as age, place, employer or photo before you rely on it.

What are Soundex and Double Metaphone codes?

Soundex turns a surname into one letter and three digits, so names that sound alike share a code. The US National Archives publishes the rules. The first letter is kept. B, F, P and V become 1; C, G, J, K, Q, S, X and Z become 2; and so on. Vowels, H, W and Y are skipped. Washington is W-252 and Lee is L-000 National Archives (Jan 2024). Names that begin with Van, Con, De, Di, La or Le are coded both with and without that prefix. Mc and Mac are not treated as prefixes National Archives (Jan 2024). The tool shows the second code when a name has such a prefix.

Double Metaphone is a sound code that Lawrence Philips described in the C/C++ Users Journal in June 2000. It returns a primary and a secondary code, and it also handles spellings from Slavic, Germanic and Greek names. Smith gives SM0 and XMT, Schmidt gives XMT and SMT, and the shared XMT links them Wikipedia: Metaphone. The generator uses it as a filter: a sound-alike spelling is shown only if it shares a code with what you typed. That removes most nonsense spellings, but not all, so use judgement.

How are accented and Cyrillic names written in Latin letters?

Passports follow ICAO Doc 9303 in their machine-readable zone (the two lines of capital letters at the bottom of the photo page). It writes Ä as AE or A, Ö as OE or O and Ü as UE, UXX or U. It also writes Å as AA or A, Ø as OE, ẞ as SS and Ñ as N or NXX ICAO Doc 9303 Part 3 (2021). So Müller can appear as MUELLER or MULLER there, and the generator lists both forms. The UXX and NXX codes appear only in that zone and are not generated.

For Russian Cyrillic the tool shows two systems. ICAO Doc 9303 writes Й as I, Ю as IU and Я as IA, and leaves out the soft sign Ь. So Дмитрий becomes Dmitrii ICAO Doc 9303 Part 3 (2021). BGN/PCGN 1947, the system of the US and UK geographic-names boards, writes Й as Y, Ю as YU and Я as YA. It writes Е as YE at the start of a word and after a vowel BGN/PCGN Russian (checked 2019). Its apostrophes for Ь and Ъ are dropped here, because search engines and databases rarely keep them.

Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian and other Cyrillic alphabets use different letters for some sounds. ICAO lists Г as H for Belarusian, Serbian and Ukrainian, for example ICAO Doc 9303 Part 3 (2021). The tool applies the Russian rules only, so check those names by hand. Arabic, Chinese and other scripts are not converted at all.

Where do the nickname lists come from?

The nickname, spelling and cross-language lists are curated by Max Intel. They hold 153 given names with their common short forms, 42 spelling families (Katherine, Catherine, Kathryn) and 35 cross-language groups (John, Juan, Johann, Jean). Most entries are English; there is also a selection of Spanish, Italian, German and Russian names, such as Paco for Francisco and Sasha for Aleksandr. The lists are short on purpose and are not exhaustive.

For a larger English list, the open nicknames dataset holds "roughly 1100 canonical names" under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its README says it was mined from a genealogy page and that "the dataset is heavily biased towards traditionally African American names" nicknames README.

Credits. Inspired by Bellingcat's Name Variant Search and its alias-generator module, both released under the MIT licence Bellingcat on GitHub. No Bellingcat code or data is copied. Sound-alike filtering uses the open-source double-metaphone package, version 2.0.1, by Titus Wormer (MIT licence), included in this page with its copyright notice double-metaphone README.

What should you not use a name variant search for?

Do not use it to decide on a job, a tenancy, credit or insurance. In the US, the Fair Credit Reporting Act protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies, including tenant screening services. People who use such reports for employment, credit or insurance must tell the consumer when they take adverse action because of one FTC (rev. Mar 2026). Use an FCRA-compliant screening company for those decisions.

Do not use it to locate someone who has cut contact with you or who may be avoiding an abuser. More variants also mean more false matches. Treat every hit as a lead to confirm, not a finding, and note which variant produced it.

How was this tool tested?

Run in headless Chromium at 375 px and 1280 px wide. Test names: William O'Neil, José María García-López, Katherine McDonald, Müller, Дмитрий Сергеевич Иванов, Pieter van der Berg, Ahmed al-Rashid, Sean MacLeod with Brown as the other surname, Anna Mueller and Jean-Luc St. Pierre.
Soundex was checked against the National Archives examples (Washington W-252, Lee L-000, Gutierrez G-362, Pfister P-236, Jackson J-250, Tymczak T-522, Ashcraft A-261, VanDeusen V-532 or D-250). Double Metaphone was checked against the package README example (Michael MKL, MXL) and the Smith and Schmidt codes.
Every pivot link was checked. Google links carry the quoted variant and People Search links fill the first and last name. Username Search links pass a plain handle. TXT and CSV exports were downloaded and opened.
Hostile input such as <img src=x onerror=alert(1)> is shown as text, and there is no horizontal scrolling at 375 px.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Is the name I type sent anywhere?

No. The variants are generated by JavaScript in your browser, and the name is not uploaded or stored. A request leaves your browser only when you click a pivot link: Google, People Search or Username Search then receive that one variant. The page itself loads the site analytics and ads that every Max Intel page loads.

Should I search with or without the middle name?

Both. Formal records such as court filings, licences and death notices often carry a middle name or initial, while social profiles usually leave it out. Some people go by their middle name entirely, so the tool also lists the middle name with the surname. Start with the most complete form, then drop the middle name if results are thin.

How many name variants should I search?

Search until new variants stop turning up new results. Start with the full name, the common nickname, the surname-first form and the accent-free form, then work down the groups. A rare name needs few variants. A very common name needs context words, such as a city or employer, before any variant is useful. Download the list to record which ones you checked.

How do I find someone who changed their surname after marriage?

Enter the name you know in the main boxes and the other surname in the maiden or married box. The tool then lists the combined, hyphenated and née forms. Wedding notices and obituaries often give both surnames, and many people keep their old surname at work. Some records also turn the birth surname into a middle name.

Can I use this to screen a tenant, employee or borrower?

No. In the US, decisions about jobs, housing, credit or insurance that rely on background reports fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It limits who may get such reports and requires notice when one leads to adverse action. Use an FCRA-compliant screening company for those decisions. This tool is for research, such as finding records, genealogy and checking your own exposure.

Which phonetic code should I use, Soundex or Double Metaphone?

Use Soundex when a database or genealogy index offers a Soundex search, because that is the code it understands. Use Double Metaphone when you sort or group names yourself: it gives two codes per name and copes with more non-English spellings. Neither code proves that two names belong to the same person. They only say the names sound alike.

Why does the tool not convert Arabic or Chinese names?

These scripts have several romanisation systems in everyday use. The Latin spelling of a name often depends on the country, the dialect or the person. Rather than guess, the tool converts only Russian Cyrillic, using the ICAO passport system and BGN/PCGN. For other scripts, enter the Latin spellings you have seen and the tool will vary those.

Can I add my own nicknames to the list?

Not inside the tool. Download the TXT or CSV file, add your own variants in a text editor or spreadsheet, and keep that file with your notes. The built-in lists are deliberately short so that every suggestion is a form people really use.

Next step: take the best two or three variants into People Search, then run the handles through Username Search.