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Everchanging Book of Names


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I've wondered the same thing, but never tried too hard to get it running on my Mac. I certain it's doable with a virtual machine, or through a WINE layer since Mac is basically a prettied up Linux machine, but I never bothered to go through the hassle of getting it running. There's also Crossover by CodeWeavers, you can get a free trial of it and see if it lets you run EBoN the way you want before committing cash or finding a cheaper/free alternative.

 

There are decent places online for random name generation, and free iPhone apps as well.

This site works well enough for me at the moment:

http://fantasynamegenerators.com

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey, guys.  I've seen this topic from a google search this Monday, and it tickled my mind.  I struck me that the "Everchanging Book of Names" software was:

-windows only

-closed source

-not much improved since many years

 

There's an open-source video game on linux-mac-windows called wesnoth, that used a name generator using markov chains to generate the names of its character.  It seems a bit overkill (and concentration-risky) to start a whole video game to game character names, so I felt challenged to write a small basis code, usable on linux/mac and with the source so you can improve if you wish to.  So I did my research, and come up with this little script.

 

So how did the everlasting book of names work ?  It's source closed, it's a bit harder to guess the algorithm.  There is a help file with a small description, and it seems very linguistic-influenced.  From what I understand, it split word in phonems, then in consonents-vowel clusters.  Then the interesting parts comes up: it makes some trigrams of consonent-vowel, consonent-any-consonent

or vowel-any-vowel clusters, create a word structure in term of consonent/vowel sequence and tries to match the trigrams on it.

 

Wesnoth uses a pure "graph" search method.  It iterates by picking a letter that has been observed in a word of the name dictionary to follow the last three generated letters, until it reaches some limit length or a end-of-word marker, treated as a letter for the rest of the algorithm.

 

I decided to go on with the wesnoth method, because it seems more general (usable with different alphabets or way of writing phonems).  However I went way much more probabilistic, and allowed for trigrams not appearing in the dictionary to be generated, just with low probability (it's called Lagrange smoothing).  It decrease the quality of results, but improve the randomness of names.  If you decide to discard names that already appears in the dictionary, it actually improves quality.

 

For quickness and easiness, I wrote a pure command-line software in python 3.  If you're geek enough, you can try it out, I'm copying the script below.  If enough people are interested, I may try to improve the script, like adding a quick GTK gui or throwing in linguistic or other ideas I have or you have to improve name generation and then upload it on github.

EDIT: oh, I forgot to mention: you need to `feed` the script with the path to a name dictionary file, with is simly a txt file with one name per line.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import random
import argparse


argparser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        usage='%(prog)s [options] dictionary [dictionary...]',
        description='Generate a random name from a flavor of existing names.'
        )

argparser.add_argument( '-n', '--number', action='store', type=int, default=1,
        help='number of names to generate' )
argparser.add_argument( '-u', '--uniform', action='store_true', default=False,
        help='ignore possible word weight and set them all to 1' )
argparser.add_argument( '-s', '--ngram-size', action='store', type=int, default=2,
        help='how many previous characters are looked to choose the next one (default 2)' )
argparser.add_argument( '-l', '--min-length', action='store', type=int, default=3,
        help='minimun length of a generated name (default 3)' )
argparser.add_argument( '-L', '--max-length', action='store', type=int, default=20,
        help='maximum length of a generated name (default 20)' )
argparser.add_argument( '-o', '--original', action='store_true', default=False,
        help='discard words already existing in the dictionary' )
argparser.add_argument( '-p', '--min-perpexity', action='store', type=float, default=0.0,
        help='tolerance threshold to discard words that matches too closely the examples (default 0.0)' )
argparser.add_argument( '-P', '--max-perpexity', action='store', type=float, default=10,
        help='tolerance threshold to discard ugly words (default 10.0)' )
argparser.add_argument( 'dictionary', action='store', nargs='*',
        default=['namelists/viking_male.txt','namelists/viking_female.txt','namelists/viking_unknownGender.txt'],
        help='Number of names to generate' )

args = argparser.parse_args()

dictfiles = args.dictionary
n = args.number
uniform_weight = args.uniform
psize = args.ngram_size
size = psize + 1

min_length = args.min_length
max_length = args.max_length
min_perpexity = args.min_perpexity
max_perpexity = args.max_perpexity
only_original = args.original

## c = the character itself
## l = length of prefix
## n = number of occurences of the prefix
## k = number of occurenecs of the character after the prefix
class MaxRegularizer():
    def __init__( self ):
        self.scores_ = {}

    def learn( self, l, c, n, k ):
        score = (k/n) * 2**l
        if c in self.scores_:
            self.scores_[c] += score
        else:
            self.scores_[c] = score

    def scores( self ):
        for t in self.scores_.items():
            yield t

new_regularizer = MaxRegularizer

def dichotomic_find( random_access_collection, element ):
    i = 0
    j = len( random_access_collection )
    while i < j:
        k = (i+j) // 2
        if random_access_collection[k] > element:
            j = k
        elif random_access_collection[k] < element:
            i = k + 1
        else: #random_access_collection[k] == element
            return k
    assert i==j
    return i

class DiscretePicker:
    def __init__( self, probabilities ):
        self.cumulative_probabilities = []
        accumulator = 0.0
        for p in probabilities:
            accumulator += p
            self.cumulative_probabilities.append( accumulator )

    def pick( self ):
        upper_bound = self.cumulative_probabilities[-1]
        random_float = random.uniform(0.0,upper_bound)
        return dichotomic_find( self.cumulative_probabilities, random_float )

def discrete_pick( probabilities ):
    picker = DiscretePicker( probabilities )
    return picker.pick()


all_words = set()
prefix_counters = [{} for i in range(psize+1)]
for df in dictfiles:
    with open( df, "r" ) as dictstream:
        for word in dictstream:
            word = word.split('#')[0].strip()
            word_data = word.split(':')
            word = word_data[0]
            all_words.add( word )
            if not uniform_weight:
                weight = float(word_data[1]) if len(word_data) > 1 else 1
            else:
                weight = 1
            if word=='':
                continue
            word = '^' + word + '$'
            ngrams = ['' for i in range(size+1)]
            for c in word:
                for i in range(1,size+1):
                    ngrams[i] += c
                    if len(ngrams[i]) > i:
                        ngrams[i] = ngrams[i][1:]


                    prefix = ngrams[i][:-1]
                    character = ngrams[i][-1]
                    if character == '^':
                        continue
                    if prefix not in prefix_counters[i-1]:
                        prefix_counters[i-1][ prefix ] = {}
                    if character not in prefix_counters[i-1][ prefix ]:
                        prefix_counters[i-1][ prefix ][ character ] = 0
                    prefix_counters[i-1][ prefix ][ character ] += weight



def get_prefix_count( psize, prefix ):
    if prefix not in prefix_counters[psize]:
        return 0, {}
    a = 0
    for char, k in prefix_counters[psize][prefix].items():
        a += k
    return a, prefix_counters[psize][prefix]

## generation ###
num_generated_names = 0
while num_generated_names < n:
    name = '^'
    name_probability = 1.0
    while len(name) < max_length:
        s = min( psize, len(name) )
        regularizer = new_regularizer()
        for l in range( 0, s+1 ):
            lprefix = name[-l:] if l > 0 else ''
            total_occurences, per_char_occurences = get_prefix_count( l, lprefix )

            for c, k in per_char_occurences.items():
                regularizer.learn( l, c, total_occurences, k )

        characters_only, strengths_only = zip(* regularizer.scores() )
        i = discrete_pick( strengths_only )
        character = characters_only[i]
        if character == '$':
            if len(name) < min_length:
                continue
            else:
                break
        name += character
        name_probability *= strengths_only[i]/sum(strengths_only)
    name=name[1:]
    name_perpexity = (name_probability**(-1/len(name)))
    if only_original and name in all_words:
        pass
    #    print( "duplicate!", name, '(%d)' % name_perpexity )
    elif name_perpexity > max_perpexity:
        pass
    #    print( "ugly!", name, '(%d)' % name_perpexity )
    elif name_perpexity < min_perpexity:
        pass
    #    print( "too likely!", name, '(%d)' % name_perpexity )
    else:
        print("%.6f : %s" % (name_perpexity, name) )
        num_generated_names +=1



Here are samples, generated from american male baby names since the 2000s.  Not perfect, but there are already insteresting examples appearing, like "jaminique" or "trennett".

 

ricio
edgarresten
rubenner
jerek
sincennandy
kelliam
willin
benjamarc
zacharles
kalexandrew
alake
eduardomin
frandon
nicolton
edrian
mouham
aleb
xavin
craiden
sandrewayles
treginald
julises
cardo
br
thomason
cristin
alexandon
michace
eddielijah
evancisco
ricent
nathanden
izaiden
lelandro
lraham
trennett
stepher
calebastian
steph
masonnor
jerek
hen
juliam
santhony
jaconnor
connon
eth
milip
nic
eamuel
williott
willon
ell
gory
jaminique
domian
jasony
oscarian
nikolamon
riles


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

Edited by P_2(R)
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Agree - there are some good ones there, without an obvious root, although I see something of a trend towards taking a common name and changing a letter or part, which is a really good way of naming, because it is strange and familiar - e.g. Joffrey, etc.

 

Nice work - look forward to the answer to Mai's question, as I am also code impaired. My programming stopped at BASIC  :-/

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Thanks for the positive feedbacks.  I had ideas to improve the thing and, as always, some motivation helps to try to get them done.

 

The algorithm is definitevely improvable, and I'm getting ideas about it (well I open my AI book, "Natural Language processing" section...).  However there are already option to dismiss results deemed "too probable" or "too improbable".  I can alter the boundaries to select worst results.  For example, with the same american baby names, but selecting less good results :

10.801808 : atan
13.900588 : ko
13.869776 : jajeneo
13.255757 : rrene
10.340706 : shanga

For usage, it involves to use the terminal aka the command-line-interface aka using the computer text based (I always though linguists should like to communicate to their computer by typing in a language, but this seems not to be the case...).  Read the instructions below first, and if it seems too hard maybe wait until I produce something more distributable.  Or go full on a complete python3 tutorial until you can create and run the famous "hello, world!" program.

 

So, the first thing you need is to install python, version 3.  The process is heavily dependent on your platform.  I don't have a mac myself, so I'm not sure how to install python there.

There is a tutorial on the official site on how to get python working on each platform : https://docs.python.org/3/using/index.html. Section 4 speaks about mac.  Sorry for the heavy readings that it might involve.

 

Now create a new text file with some equivalent of window's notepad, copy my code above and paste in the file.  Save the file in a folder, for example Downloads and for example with the name namegen.py.  Also, creates a list of names in a file (one name per line, avoid capital letters) in the same directory, for example names.txt.

 

As I said there's no graphical user interface (GUI) yet, so you have to run the program from the terminal.  On mac, I think you can launch the terminal in Application/Utilities.  From the documentation, linked above "To run your script from the Terminal window you must make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your shell search path."  To verify this, type in the terminal

echo $PATH

and see if you can see "/usr/local/bin" in the output, separated from other items by colons (it should be there).  If it isn't there type :

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:${PATH}"

to add it & verify again.  You have to run that export command for each terminal you open.  Now you must change the current terminal directory (like in an file explorer), using the command cd.  For example, if the script is in you download directory, you can do either

cd Downloads
cd ~/Downloads
cd $HOME/Downloads

Now you can run the program by typing

python3 namegen.py names.txt -n 50

names.txt should be the path from the directory you are to the file containing one name per line and 50 is the number of elements to generate.  It should generate a number, a colon and a name.  The number is how "likely" a name is ( the lower, the more likely ).

 

If you have already used the terminal before, you can see the list of options with --help

python3 namegen.py --help
Edited by P_2(R)
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Sorry for the cryptic message I posted just before this one.  Well, you ask me for instructions, I give you instructions...  I have ideas to improve the algorithm, but I realize it's pointless if I don't package it properly and distribute it, nobody but me will benefit from it.  I no Mac, so that means Windows packages first...

 

Anyway, I rewrote the code to be much, much, much cleaner and improvable in the future.  I uploaded on www.github.com so it'll be more easy to share, or to contribute for the ones who can code.  In a great moment of lack of inspiration (of about 4 seconds), I named it "jaminique".  There's no distributable package yet, you still have to install python3, clone with git and run in terminal.  I need to do a (simple) user-friendly gui first, then I can think of user-friendly unzip&launch thing.

 

Here is the url: https://github.com/laerne/jaminique

Edited by P_2(R)
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  • 4 weeks later...

Instead of hoping there is a MacOS version of something like this it may be easier to Google, "random name generator"?

 

Reading the description of the EBoN program, it sounds like a 'simple' name generation aid used for roleplaying gamers. If that is the case, there are any dozen of name generators out there for free, which run in your browser.

 

Just a thought.

 

P.S. I've used http://www.behindthename.com/random/ before. Love how you can specificy different demographic filters to give you more targeted results.

 

This site has more generators of all types than you can shake a stick at: http://chaoticshiny.com/index.php

Edited by DoOver
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  • 3 weeks later...

The exceedingly great benefit of EBoN is that you can select from existing languages/dialects/regions to get 'new' names with that "feel."

So, for instance, you can get Icelandic-sounding names (or names with an Icelandic 'feel', if you will). You can select from a pretty decent chunk of countries, as well as some fantasy-inspired locales (Westeros, Two Rivers, all sorts of Tolkien names, etc).
This places EBoN a cut above most random fantasy/DnD name generators online, as it is uniquely malleable.

 

I love it, and I wish I were smart enough to write a chapter for Armenian-sounding names. [Hey P_2®, hit me up if you can make that happen! Haha]

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What's up with the margins on this page? No banners, which is the usual culprit... Is it just me?

 

Witchcraft!

 

It's not only you. I can see it as well, and this page wasn't like this in the past. The page actually has the same margins, but it's absurdly stretched, having ~10k px of width.

 

I peeked at the source code and it's caused by P_2(R )'s code at #4. The culprit is an empty paragraph at the end of his post, right under the names list. It's full of  , blank spaces. I'm pretty sure it's the WYSIWYG editor acting dumb again, probably when the author edited his post last time.

 

My sincere advice would be the staff getting rid of this editor and implementing a better one, since it's the second time I see a bug like this being caused by its failure to validate the "pretty" code. It worries me, stinks of vulnerability. Unfortunately, it's probably not feasible. If they add a simple overflow: hidden; to the .entry-content they could avoid this same problem in the future, though sicking random {overflow: hidden}s in the code can generate other issues, to not speak of the possibility of someone figuring out how maliciously exploit of the wacky validation.

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