census-name-generator
A statistically realistic artificial name generator. Syntax looks like this:
namegen.pl [-d] <# of names>
-d Download name data from census (only need to do once)
# of names How many names to you need?
The script uses 1990 Census data to ensure a realistic distribution. ("John Smith" is more likely than "Marcellus Wallace", but both are possible.) Distribution is 50/50 male to female, but can be configured in the script.
Sample run:
% ./namegen.pl -d 10
Downloading last name census data... Done.
Downloading female first name census data... Done.
Downloading male first name census data... Done.
Samuel Bowman
Sheila Gervais
Edith Brown
Jenny Lee
Harold Mendoza
Gloria Phipps
Dawn Andrews
Freida Goldberg
Lorraine Hicks
Elizabeth King
Once the data has been downloaded, it takes about 2-3 seconds to generate a million fake names.
Newer version
This project has been extended in functionality in another project: [https://github.com/greenify/cli-name-generator]