Names

Names is a reusable app for Django that provides mixins, models and form fields to store a full name and its individual components. The following name components are supported:

• Full name
• Title
• First name
• Middle name
• Last name
• Suffix
• Nickname

Names officially supports the following:

• Python 3.6 - 3.7
• Django 1.11, 2.0 - 2.2

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Basic Usage
• Features
  • Name model
  • NameField model field
  • NameModelMixin mixin
• Settings

Installation

To install, simply use pipenv (or pip):

>>> pipenv install django-names

Add names to your INSTALLED_APPS setting:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "names",
]

Run migrations:

>>> python manage.py migrate names

Basic Usage

>>> from names.models import Name
>>> name = Name.objects.create(full="Natalia Alianovna 'Natasha' Romanova")
>>> name.full
'Natalia Alianovna Romanova (Natasha)'
>>> name.first
'Natalia'
>>> name.middle
'Alianovna'
>>> name.last
'Romanova'
>>> name.nickname
'Natasha'

Features

Names was designed to be flexible. It comes with three primary features:

• Name: A model that parses and stores full names.
• NameField: A model field that provides a one-to-one relationship to a Name instance.
• NameModelMixin: A mixin that can be used to extend existing models.

Name model

The Name model contains fields and methods that store a full name and its individual components.

>>> from names.models import Name
>>> name = Name.objects.create(full="Anthony Edward Stark (Tony)")
>>> name
<Name: Anthony Edward Stark (Tony)>
>>> name.full
'Anthony Edward Stark (Tony)'
>>> name.title
''
>>> name.first
'Anthony'
>>> name.middle
'Edward'
>>> name.last
'Stark'
>>> name.suffix
''
>>> name.nickname
'Tony'

When you update an individual name component, the full name updates automatically when the instance is saved.

>>> name.nickname = "Iron Man"
>>> name.save()
>>> name.full
'Anthony Edward Stark (Iron Man)'

NameField model field

NameField has a one-to-one relationship to a Name instance.

from names.fields import NameField

class User(models.Model):
    name = NameField(on_delete=models.CASCADE)

>>> from names.models import Name
>>> name = Name.objects.create(full="Carol Susan Jane Danvers")
>>> User = User.objects.create(name=name)
>>> user.name.full
'Carol Susan Jane Danvers'

NameModelMixin mixin

Name inherits its functionality from the NameModelMixin mixin. You can use this mixin to extend existing models to avoid adding a field with a one-to-one relationship or additional database tables.

from names.mixins import NameModelMixin

class User(NameModelMixin):
    pass

>>> user = User.objects.create(full="General Nicholas Joseph 'Nick' Fury")
>>> user.full
'General Nicholas Joseph Fury (Nick)'
>>> user.title
'General'

Settings

Names uses the NAME_SETTINGS namespace for all settings. The following settings are supported:

• MAX_LENGTH
• STRING_FORMAT
• EMPTY_ATTRIBUTE_DEFAULT
• OPTIONS
  • TITLES
  • FIRST_NAME_TITLES
  • SUFFIX_ACRONYMS
  • SUFFIX_NOT_ACRONYMS
  • CONJUNCTIONS
  • PREFIXES
  • CAPITALIZATION_EXCEPTIONS
  • REGEXES

MAX_LENGTH

type <int>

Max length of each CharField defined in the NameModelMixin mixin.

Default:

100

STRING_FORMAT

type <str>

Sets the output string for the full field.

Default

"{title} {first} {middle} {last} {suffix} ({nickname})"

Learn more

Change the output string with string formatting

EMPTY_ATTRIBUTE_DEFAULT

type <str>

Value returned by empty name attributes.

Default

""  # empty string

OPTIONS

type <dict>

Handles recognition of titles, prefixes, suffixes and conjunctions. The OPTIONS setting is very powerful and can be used to customize how you parse names.

Default

"OPTIONS": {
   "TITLES": TITLES,
   "SUFFIX_NOT_ACRONYMS": SUFFIX_NOT_ACRONYMS,
   "CONJUNCTIONS": CONJUNCTIONS,
   "PREFIXES": PREFIXES,
   "CAPITALIZATION_EXCEPTIONS": CAPITALIZATION_EXCEPTIONS,
   "REGEXES": REGEXES,
}

Options are imported from python-nameparser, which is the library used to parse names.

Learn more

Editable attributes