Facebook Name Trees

Thanks to Ron Bowes' recent release of the public Facebook info for 100 million users, there is now a handy tool for matching first names to last names.

For example, if your last name is Aamir, your first name is most commonly Muhammed or Mohammed. If your last name is Epstein, your first name is often David, Michael, Mark or Dan.

This comes in handy if you want normative names for a script. For example, if you have an Arab character, put in an Arab last name (Hussein, say), and you'll get some convincing Arab names: Ahmed Hussein, Ali Hussein, Mohammed Hussein; also Mostafa, Abdulrahman, and adorably, Rehab.

This allows more precise ethnic marking than, say, the awesomely useful Baby Name Voyager, which is excellent for age marking.