System and method for formulating reasonable spelling variations of a proper name

A method for formulating reasonable spelling variations of a name, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a name;
• generating a regular expression based on the received name and one or more rules included in a rule set, wherein the regular expression represents a set of possible spelling variations of the received name;
• determining the set of names included in a name database that match the generated regular expression;
• and
• outputting each name from the name database that is determined to match the generated regular expression.

A system for formulating reasonable spelling variations of a name, comprising:

• receiving means for receiving a name;
• generating means for generating one or more character strings based on the received name and rules included in a rule set, wherein each character string is a possible spelling variation of the received name;
• accessing means for accessing a name database;
• determining means for determining whether a generated string is included in the name database;
• and
• means for outputting the generated character strings that are determined to be included in the name database.

A system for formulating reasonable spelling variations of a name, comprising:

• receiving means for receiving a name;
• generating means for generating a regular expression based on the received name and one or more rules included in a rule set, wherein the regular expression represents a set of possible spelling variations of the received name;
• determining means for determining the set of names included in a name database that match the generated regular expression;
• and
• outputting each name from the name database that is determined to match the generated regular expression.