JapaneseNames

JapaneseNames provides an interface to the T file.

This library comes packaged with a compacted version of the ENAMDICT file at bin/enamdict.min. Refer to Rake Tasks below for how this file is constructed.

Provides a structured query interface to access ENAMDICT data.

finder = JapaneseNames::Finder.new

finder.find(kanji: '外世子')  #=> [["外世子", "とよこ", "f"]]

finder.find(kana: 'ならしま', flags: 's')  #=> [["奈良島", "ならしま", "s"],
                                         #    ["楢島", "ならしま", "s"],
                                         #    ["楢嶋", "ならしま", "s"]]

finder.find(kanji: '楢二郎', kana: 'ならじろう')  #=> [["楢二郎", "ならじろう", "m"]]

where options are:

• kanji: The kanji name string to match. Regex syntax suppported. Either :kanji or :kana must be specified.
• kana: The kana name string to match. Regex syntax suppported.
• flags: The flag char or array of flag chars to match. Refer to ENAMDIC documentation. Additionally constants JapaneseNames::Enamdict::NAME_SURNAME and JapaneseNames::Enamdict::NAME_GIVEN may be used.

Note that romaji data has been removed from our enamdict.min file in the compression step. We recommend to use a gem such as mojinizer to convert romaji to kana before doing a query.

The main method is split which, given a kanji and kana representation of a name splits into to family/given names.

splitter = JapaneseNames::Splitter.new
splitter.split('堺雅美', 'さかいマサミ')  #=> [['堺', '雅美'], ['さかい', 'マサミ']]

Over a test corpus of over 22,000 names it yields a failure rate of less than 0.5%.

The logic is as follows:

• Step 1: Split kanji name into possible sub-strings from the middle out-ward.

  上原亜沙子 => 
  
  上原     亜沙子
  上原亜     沙子
  上     原亜沙子
  上原亜沙     子
  

• Step 2: Lookup possible kana matches in dictionary (done in a single pass)

  上原　　　 => かみはら　かみばら　うえはら うえばら...
  亜沙子    => あさこ
  上原亜　　 => X
  亜沙　    => さこ
  上　　　　 => かみ　うえ ...
  原亜沙子　 => X
  ...
  

• Step 3: Compare kana lookups versus kana name and detect first match. If the kana string can be matched from both sides and yield the same result, we will return that result immediately. Otherwise we return the first single sided match found.

  うえはらあさこ contains かみはら ? => X
  うえはらあさこ contains かみばら ? => X
  うえはらあさこ contains うえはら ? => YES! [うえはら]あさこ
  
  うえはらあさこ contains あさこ ? => YES! うえはら[あさこ]
  
  Double-sided match found! ==> Return immediately
  

• Step 4: If match found, split names accordingly

  [上原]亜沙子  => 上原 亜沙子
  [うえはら]あさこ => うえはら あさこ
  

• Step 5: If match still not found, return nil

The following tasks are used for development purposes of this gem only. They will not be accessible in projects which use this gem.

• rake enamdict:refresh: Runs enamdict:download and enamdict:minify (see below)

• rake enamdict:download: Downloads and extract the ENAMDICT file to /tmp/enamdict

• rake enamdict:minify: Compiles /bin/enamdict.min file from /tmp/enamdict. Performs several processing steps including:

  • Converts to UTF-8
  • Compacts format (pipe-delimited)
  • Removes non-human name entries
  • Removes romaji strings (redundant with kana)

• Additional Methods: Add additional methods to access the ENAMDICT file.

• Performance: Currently name lookup takes approx 0.5 sec. Benchmarking and/or a native C implementation of the dictionary would be nice.

• Gender Lookup: Use m/f dictionary flag to infer name gender.

Fork -> Commit -> Spec -> Push -> Pull Request

• Marco Bresciani's wwwwjdic gem which is NOT used by this lib
• @jeresig's node-enamdict an ENAMDIC reader for Node.js

• @johnnyshields

Copyright (c) 2014 Johnny Shields.

ENAMDICT is Copyright (c) The Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group

See LICENSE for details