Getting started with randomNames

In randomNames: Generate Random Given and Surnames

library(randomNames)
is_html_output = function() {
  knitr::opts_knit$get("rmarkdown.pandoc.to")=="html"
}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
    collapse = TRUE,
    comment = "",
    prompt=TRUE,
    fig.dpi = 96
            )
if (is_html_output()) {
    options(width=1000)
}

Introduction

The randomNames package contains a single function allowing users to generate proportionally correct, gender and ethnicity specific first and last names. The package contains an embedded data set of names that is based upon a large scale data set of names from the United States where the ethnicity and gender of the person was identified. The embedded data set includes information about ethnicity, gender (first name), and the probability of the name occurring in the data set. Random names are often useful in situations where one needs to share personal information but needs to obscure the identity of the person to whom the data belongs.

Use

After installing the package from either CRAN or GitHub, it's simple to generate random names using the following simple instructions.

By default, the randomNames function supplies a single random last and first name separated by a comma:

randomNames()

To generate more random names, just supply a positive integer to the randomNames function:

randomNames(5)

Additional output control

The randomNames function accepts several arguments including n, gender, ethnicity, which.names, name.order, and name.sep.

randomNames(n,
            gender,
            ethnicity,
            which.names="both",
            name.order="last.first",
            name.sep=", ",
            sample.with.replacement=TRUE,
            return.complete.data=FALSE)

For complete documentation on values accepted for arguments, see the function documentation

Examples

The first argument, n, controls the number of names returned by the randomNames function:

randomNames(5) ## 5 last, first names

The second argument, gender, controls the gender (0=male, 1=female) of the first names returned. This argument can be a vector up to the same length as the number of names requested.

randomNames(5, gender=1) ## 5 female last, first names

randomNames(5, gender=c(0,0,1,1,1)) ## 2 male  and 3 female last, first names

The third argument, ethnicity, controls the ethnicity of the names returned. The following integer codes/ethnicities are accepted:

1. American Indian or Native Alaskan
2. Asian or Pacific Islander
3. Black (not Hispanic)
4. Hispanic
5. White (not Hispanic)
6. Middle-Eastern, Arabic

randomNames(5, gender=0, ethnicity=3) ## 5 African American, male last, first names

The fourth argument, which.names controls which names are returned. The argument accepts the values: both (the default), last, first, or complete.data

randomNames(5, gender=1, ethnicity=6, which.names="first") ## 5 Middle Eastern/Arabic, female first names

The fifth argument, name.order, controls the order in which the names are returned. The argument is only relevant if which.names=both. The argument accepts the values: last.first (the default) and first.last.

randomNames(5, gender=1, ethnicity=6, name.order="first.last") ## 5 first last names

The sixth argument, name.sep, is a character string that controls the separator used when both names are returned. The default separator is ,.

randomNames(5, gender=1, ethnicity=6, name.order="first.last", name.sep=" ") ## 5 first last names separated by a space

Contributions & Requests

If you have contribution or a feature request for the randomNames package, don't hesitate to write or set up an issue on GitHub.

randomNames documentation built on May 29, 2024, 11:51 a.m.