---
id: names
version: "0.3.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: dormant
---

# names — Generate random names

License: permissive · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 621.4K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Names is a lightweight random name generator that produces realistic human names from census data. It works both as a standalone command-line tool (run `names` to get a random full name) and as a Python library with functions to retrieve full names, first names, or last names, with optional gender filtering.

The package bundles public-domain name frequency data from the 1990 US Census, making it useful for generating test data, mock user records, or placeholder names in applications. It has no external dependencies and is straightforward to integrate, though the codebase has been dormant since its 2013-05-14 release and has not been updated for modern Python versions.

Use it for:

- Generate realistic test user data and fixtures for unit tests or integration tests
- Create mock datasets for development and staging environments without real personal data
- Populate demo applications or prototypes with plausible placeholder names
- Build randomized synthetic datasets for data science or machine learning experiments

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Generates random human names (first, last, or full) with optional gender selection, available both as a command-line tool and Python library.

Yes, with caution. The package is simple, has no dependencies, and works for basic name generation in test or development contexts. However, it is dormant since 2013-05-14 and untested on modern Python versions—verify compatibility before using in production. The 1990 Census data may not reflect current name distributions. Best suited for throwaway test data, not for applications requiring up-to-date or representative name samples.

## Install

pip install names
uv add names
poetry add names

## Installing names

Before you install: High install friction due to source distribution only (names-0.3.0.tar.gz). Package is dormant—last release was 2013-05-14 with no updates since then, though the repository remains active with a recent commit on 2023-10-16.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive; you can use this freely in commercial and private projects. The underlying name data (dist.all.last, dist.female.first, dist.male.first) is public domain, derived from 1990 Census data.

Quickstart:

pip install names

import names
names.get_full_name()
names.get_full_name(gender='male')
names.get_first_name(gender='female')
names.get_last_name()

No runtime dependencies, but package is source-only and dormant; compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.3 is unverified.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works reliably on Python versions released after 2013 (3.4+, 3.10+, etc.)
- Whether the 1990 Census name data is still representative or acceptable for current use cases
- Performance characteristics when generating large batches of names

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 621.4K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

random name generator, generate fake names, random person name, name generation library, mock data names, test data generator, random first last name, test-data, mock-generation, dormant

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/names) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/names/)