Global Name:FAQ

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What is Global Name?

Global Name is a web service used to split full names, assign genders and create salutations.

Typical uses for this service are Real-time splitting and genderizing during data entry, or integration into a custom written application seamlessly (i.e., without shelling to another application).

What is Global Name available as?

Global Name is available as a web service. It is currently unavailable as an on-premise API. Global Name parsing can also be found in our SSIS Global Verify Component.

What is required to use the service?

A valid Melissa product license, the URL endpoint and an input Name (and Country) to be parsed are the minimum parts which can make up a valid request.

Is single record or batch processing available?

You can send a single REST or batches of 100 records in XML or JSON format in a single request.

Do names have to be formatted the same? Forward? Inverse?

No, names can be in different formats like John L. Smith, Smith Jr., John or Mr. John Lydon Smith Jr. PhD. and be processed simultaneously. The service will be able to distinguish first name from last name from prefix, etc. regardless of their order.

How are dual names handled?

Global Name can recognize various dual name patterns such as Mr and Mrs John Smith, Mr John & Jane Smith, and Mr. John Smith and Mrs Jane Seymour along side of records like Mr. John Smith, returning two sets of parsed output names when necessary.

Does Global Name have UTF-8 Compliance?

Global Name will also proper case extended and UTF-8 characters as well as special case known tokens.

Does Global Name detect and delete vulgar names?

Vulgar, Suspicious, and Company Indicator names will be flagged as such via response result codes, but the name is not removed.

Is there international processing?

Global Name will distinguish between extended characters and an additional input Country to return parsing across different countries and languages.

Is customization available?

Yes, there are many options such as name hint, gender aggression and salutation option which let you help the parsing engine assign parsed properties and customize how the response answers will be returned.

How often is the service updated?

Global Name Web Service is updated on a monthly basis. Updates include additional ‘name’ sources, added country support or general service updates.

What is the expected service throughput?

The expected throughput is approximately 1,500,000 records per hour.

Service Endpoint	Throughput (records / hour)
doGlobalName	1,500,000 – 2,000,000

Service factors effecting throughput

Distribution of the data. Being a Global Service, if inputs are randomly distributed over a wide range of Countries, searching for a name will require more of the underlying data to be accessed. Input data sets containing low country recognition may take longer – as the underlying data will search for records longer before it is determined to be an unknown name

Number of threads: the above benchmark is for a single thread of 100 record batches. Increasing the number of threads can greatly increase throughput. Users should thoroughly test the effects of the number of threads against network configuration to determine the most optimal usage.

Average Response Time	Average (ms / record)
Single request	70ms
P95 Latency	80ms