nameFix()

Standardises names to conform to specific naming conventions with proper capitalisation.

Table of contents

1. Signature
2. Parameters
3. Returns
4. Description
   1. Performance
   2. Security
5. Examples
   1. Basic Usage
   2. Scottish/Irish Names
   3. Dutch/German Prefixes
   4. Hyphenated Names
   5. Null Handling
6. Prefix Handling
7. Use Cases
   1. User Registration
   2. Data Import Standardisation
   3. Display Formatting
8. Related Methods

---

Signature

public static function nameFix(#[\SensitiveParameter] ?string $lastName): ?string

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$lastName	?string	The name to standardise. Marked as sensitive parameter.

Returns

?string - The standardised name, or null if input was null.

---

Description

The nameFix() method standardises names by applying consistent capitalisation rules and handling various naming conventions correctly. It performs:

1. UTF-8 to ANSI conversion - For consistent character handling
2. Accent removal - Normalises characters
3. Mc/Mac prefix handling - Adds proper spacing and capitalisation
4. Hyphenated name handling - Capitalises each part
5. Common prefix correction - Handles van, von, de, du, la, le, etc.
6. Space normalisation - Reduces multiple spaces

Performance

• ~130,000 operations per second
• Consolidated regex operations
• Optimised prefix handling

Security

The parameter is marked with #[\SensitiveParameter] to prevent name data from appearing in stack traces and error logs.

---

Examples

Basic Usage

use MarjovanLier\StringManipulation\StringManipulation;

$result = StringManipulation::nameFix('mcdonald');
echo $result; // Output: McDonald

Scottish/Irish Names

// Mc prefix
StringManipulation::nameFix('mcdonald');
// Output: McDonald

// Mac prefix
StringManipulation::nameFix('macdonald');
// Output: MacDonald

// O' prefix
StringManipulation::nameFix("o'brien");
// Output: O'Brien

Dutch/German Prefixes

// van
StringManipulation::nameFix('van der waals');
// Output: van der Waals

// von
StringManipulation::nameFix('von neumann');
// Output: von Neumann

// de
StringManipulation::nameFix('de souza');
// Output: de Souza

Hyphenated Names

StringManipulation::nameFix('smith-jones');
// Output: Smith-Jones

StringManipulation::nameFix("o'brien-smith");
// Output: O'Brien-Smith

Null Handling

$result = StringManipulation::nameFix(null);
// Result: null

---

Prefix Handling

The method handles these common prefixes by keeping them lowercase:

Prefix	Example Input	Output
van	van berg	van Berg
von	von stein	von Stein
de	de silva	de Silva
du	du pont	du Pont
la	la rue	la Rue
le	le blanc	le Blanc
der	van der berg	van der Berg
den	van den berg	van den Berg

---

Use Cases

User Registration

class UserRegistration
{
    public function normaliseUserName(string $lastName): string
    {
        $normalised = StringManipulation::nameFix($lastName);

        if ($normalised === null) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException('Last name is required');
        }

        return $normalised;
    }
}

$registration = new UserRegistration();
$name = $registration->normaliseUserName('VAN DER BERG');
// Result: van der Berg

Data Import Standardisation

function standardiseNames(array $users): array
{
    return array_map(function ($user) {
        return [
            ...$user,
            'last_name' => StringManipulation::nameFix($user['last_name']),
        ];
    }, $users);
}

Display Formatting

function formatDisplayName(string $firstName, string $lastName): string
{
    $standardisedLast = StringManipulation::nameFix($lastName);

    return sprintf('%s %s', ucfirst($firstName), $standardisedLast);
}

echo formatDisplayName('john', 'mcdonald');
// Output: John McDonald

---

Related Methods

• searchWords() - Includes name fixing with search optimisation
• removeAccents() - Accent removal only
• utf8Ansi() - Encoding conversion