Namerator

The namerator module provides a function that takes an array of names and returns an infinite generator that yields random names based on its input:

import namerator from "https://davidsteinberg.github.io/namerator/mod.ts";

const names = ["Alice", "Alison", "Billy", "Bob", "Carol", "Cassie"];
const generator = namerator(names);
const makeName = () => generator.next().value;

for (let i = 1; i <= 10; i += 1) {
  const name = makeName();
  console.log(`${i}. ${name}`);
}

Note: Namerator will throw if the names array is empty.

Unique names

You can pass a unique flag in an options object to guarantee names are not repeated:

import namerator from "https://davidsteinberg.github.io/namerator/mod.ts";

const names = ["Alice", "Bob"];
const generator = namerator(names, { unique: true });
const makeName = () => generator.next().value;

const aliceOrBob = makeName();
const bobOrAlice = makeName();

console.log(aliceOrBob);
console.log(bobOrAlice);

Note: Namerator will throw if it fails to generate a unique name within 2 * names.length tries. Be mindful of this when using unique with a small input size, as you can quickly generate all possible names.

Implementation

Namerator is implemented using Markov chains; each character that is chosen is based solely on the previous character. Input names are split into characters and added to a lookup table, with each character mapping to a list of possible subsequent characters (or the end of the name). This lookup table, along with a set of starting characters, is used to generate names.

Namerator adheres to these constraints:

1. Names will not be longer than the longest name in the input list.
2. Words (separated by spaces in a name) will not be longer than the longest word in the input list.