# Split full names into first, middle, last & more
Split a CSV full-name column into title, first, middle, last, and suffix fields. Handles titles, suffixes, particles, and Last, First names.
## Run it
- **CLI:** `gizza tool person-name-splitter 'name,email
Dr. John Michael Smith Jr.,john@example.com
Ludwig van Beethoven,lvb@example.com
"Smith, Jane Q",jane@example.com'`
- **Web:** https://gizza.ai/tools/person-name-splitter/
- **Agents:** machine-readable descriptor (parameters JSON Schema) at https://gizza.ai/tools/person-name-splitter/tool.json
## Inputs
- `data` — CSV data _(field)_
- `name_column` — Name column (header name or 1-based number; blank = first) _(field)_
- `output` — Output _(field)_
- `delimiter` — Delimiter _(field)_
- `header` — First row is a header _(field)_
- `trim` — Trim whitespace from cells _(field)_
## Output
- Result (text)
## Query parameters
Open the tool pre-filled and auto-run via URL:
- `data` — CSV data
- `name_column` — Name column (header name or 1-based number; blank = first)
- `output` — Output
- `delimiter` — Delimiter
- `header` — First row is a header
- `trim` — Trim whitespace from cells
Example: `https://gizza.ai/tools/person-name-splitter/?data=name%2Cemail%0ADr.%20John%20Michael%20Smith%20Jr.%2Cjohn%40example.com%0ALudwig%20van%20Beethoven%2Clvb%40example.com%0A%22Smith%2C%20Jane%20Q%22%2Cjane%40example.com&name_column=name&output=append&delimiter=comma&header=true&trim=true`
---
## About this tool
Person Name Splitter turns a CSV column of free-form full names into structured components: `title`, `first`, `middle`, `last`, and `suffix`. It is meant for contact lists, CRM exports, survey data, and other tables where one full-name field needs to become separate columns.
The parser is deterministic and local. It recognizes common honorifics (`Dr.`, `Mr.`, `Prof.`), suffixes (`Jr.`, `III`, `PhD`, `MD`), surname particles (`van`, `von`, `de`, `del`, `di`, `la`, `mac`, `mc`), hyphenated and apostrophe names, and comma-form names like `Smith, Jane Q`.
### Worked example
Input CSV:
```csv
name,email
Dr. John Michael Smith Jr.,john@example.com
Ludwig van Beethoven,lvb@example.com
"Smith, Jane Q",jane@example.com
```
With **append** output, the original columns are kept and five component columns are added:
```text
name,email,name_title,name_first,name_middle,name_last,name_suffix
Dr. John Michael Smith Jr.,john@example.com,Dr.,John,Michael,Smith,Jr.
Ludwig van Beethoven,lvb@example.com,,Ludwig,,van Beethoven,
"Smith, Jane Q",jane@example.com,,Jane,Q,Smith,
```
Use **replace** to swap the name column for the five components, or **summary** to count how many rows had titles, middle names, suffixes, and ambiguous single-token names.
## Limits & edge cases
- Names are parsed with transparent heuristics, not a demographic database or AI model. Ambiguous names can still be wrong.
- Single-token names such as `Cher` are treated as first names and marked ambiguous in the summary output.
- Comma-form names must be CSV-quoted when the delimiter is comma, for example `"Smith, Jane Q"`.
- Particles are attached to the surname when they appear after the first given-name token, e.g. `Ludwig van Beethoven` → last `van Beethoven`.
- The tool handles one name column per run. Run it again for another name column.
- For non-comma files, choose tab, semicolon, or pipe so output uses the same delimiter.
## FAQ
Does this know every culture's naming rules?
No. It uses a practical set of deterministic rules for common Western-style contact lists: titles, suffixes, particles, hyphenated names, apostrophes, and `Last, First` ordering. It does not query a names database and does not infer gender or ethnicity.
What happens to names with only one word?
A single token is placed in the `first` column and left without a last name. In **summary** output, that row is counted as ambiguous so you can review it manually.
How should I enter names like `Smith, Jane` in a CSV?
If your delimiter is comma, quote the cell: `"Smith, Jane"`. Otherwise the comma would be treated as a column separator by normal CSV rules. Tab, semicolon, and pipe files can include commas without quoting if comma is not the delimiter.
Can it preserve my original full-name column?
Yes. Choose **append** to keep all original columns and add five component columns at the end. Choose **replace** only when you want the full-name column swapped out for the components.
## Related tools
- [Fuzzy Dedupe](https://gizza.ai/tools/fuzzy-dedupe/): Remove near-duplicate rows or lines (typos, casing, spacing) that exact de-duplication misses, and keep one clean row per group.
- [Rebalance an imbalanced CSV label column](https://gizza.ai/tools/class-rebalancer/): Rebalance an imbalanced CSV label column by seeded random over- or under-sampling of whole rows toward a target class ratio. Reproducible, in-browser, no synthetic rows.
- [Cluster Similar Values](https://gizza.ai/tools/cluster-similar-values/): Group near-duplicate values in a column (typos, casing, spacing) and get a canonical form per cluster. Runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, free.
- [Fuzzy Name Matcher](https://gizza.ai/tools/fuzzy-name-matcher/): Match and deduplicate person or organization names with Jaro-Winkler, Levenshtein and Soundex. Paste names, tune the threshold, export groups, pairs, CSV or JSON.
- [Outlier detector](https://gizza.ai/tools/outlier-detector/): Find outliers in a list of numbers using the z-score, modified z-score (MAD) and IQR (Tukey's fences) methods, in your browser. Free, private, no upload.