Source for generating people data?

Question

This is only tangentially a programming question. Where can I find a simple-to-parse list of people names? This is really just filler material, so they don't need much rhyme or reason.

Alternatively, is there a programmer's equivalent to lorem ipsum for when you need to create a bunch of dummy accounts?

Answer 1

If you just need some text and dont care how it looks, you could use something like Excel to generate a big list of names.

eg: in cell A1 enter ="FirstName" & ROW(A1) then select however many rows you want and fill down. In column B do the same for surname, save as CSV and import into your DB.

Or you could get a little smarter: Put some first names in column A and some surnames in column B.

Formula for C1:

=OFFSET(A$1,INT(RAND()*[[number_of_first_names]]),0)

and something similar for D1:

=OFFSET(B$1,INT(RAND()*[[number_of_last_names]]),0)

Answer 2

You could always use a bunch of names and numbers:

firsts = [ "Dave", "John", "Jane", "Jack", ...];
seconds = [ "McMuffin", "Frontage", "Bush", "McProgrammer", ...];

for f in firsts {
    for s in seconds {
        for( i=0; i<10; i++){
            tmp_user = f + "_" + s + i;
            // Add user to database
        }
    }
}

That's quite alot of usernames if you add a few more :)

Good Luck

Answer 3

You could draw names randomly from names.txt (46 KiB, comma-separated values) from Project Euler problem 22.

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EDIT: The U.S. Census Bureau has statistical data for first and last names.

Answer 4

Check out http://www.generatedata.com

Benjamin Keen has created this terrific tool that would probably fit the bill for you.