Name of Person

Inspired by Basecamp's name_of_person Ruby gem, but built for modern PHP applications.

Introduction

Handle person names in your PHP applications with elegant formatting options. Transform names between multiple presentation formats. This package provides a clean, type-safe way to parse, store, manipulate, and display person names consistently across your application.

Key Features:

• 🎯 Multiple Format Options: nine different ways to display names (full, familiar, abbreviated, initials, sorted, possessive, mentionable)
• 🎨 Smart Parsing: Intelligently handles full name strings and edge cases
• 🌍 Unicode Support: Full international name support with proper multibyte handling
• 🔧 Pure PHP: Core functionality works in any PHP project
• ⚡ Laravel Integration: Native Eloquent casting for seamless database integration

Requirements

This package requires PHP 8.2 or higher. Laravel integration requires Laravel 11 or higher.

Installation

You can install the package via composer:

composer require hosmelq/name-of-person

Basic Usage

Creating PersonName Objects

The core PersonName class works in any PHP application:

use HosmelQ\NameOfPerson\PersonName;

// Direct instantiation with first and last name.
$name = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');

// From full name strings.
$parsed = PersonName::fromFull('Jason Fried');

echo $parsed->first; // "Jason"
echo $parsed->last;  // "Fried"

// Handles single names.
$single = PersonName::fromFull('Cher');

echo $single->first; // "Cher"
echo $single->last;  // null

Available Methods

Basic Properties

first (readonly property)

Returns the first name as a string.

$name = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');

echo $name->first; // "David"

last (readonly property)

Returns the last name as a string, or null if no last name was provided.

$name = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');

echo $name->last; // "Heinemeier Hansson"

$single = PersonName::fromFull('Cher');

echo $single->last; // null

Display Methods

$name = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');

$single = PersonName::fromFull('Cher');

abbreviated()

Returns the first initial plus full last name: "F. Last"

echo $name->abbreviated();   // "D. Heinemeier Hansson"
echo $single->abbreviated(); // "Cher"

familiar()

Returns the first name plus last initial with a period: "First L."

echo $name->familiar();   // "David H."
echo $single->familiar(); // "Cher"

full()

Returns the complete name in "First Last" format.

echo $name->full(); // "David Heinemeier Hansson"

initials()

Returns all initials from the name, excluding parentheses and brackets.

echo $name->initials(); // "DHH"

$complex = new PersonName('Mary Jane', 'Watson');

echo $complex->initials(); // "MJW"

mentionable()

Returns lowercase, space-free version of the familiar name for mentions.

echo $name->mentionable();   // "davidh"
echo $single->mentionable(); // "cher"

possessive()

Returns the possessive form of the name with appropriate apostrophe placement.

echo $name->possessive(); // "David Heinemeier Hansson's"

$james = new PersonName('James', null);

echo $james->possessive(); // "James'"

You can also specify which format to make possessive:

echo $name->possessive('first');       // "David's"
echo $name->possessive('familiar');    // "David H.'s"
echo $name->possessive('abbreviated'); // "D. Heinemeier Hansson's"
echo $name->possessive('initials');    // "DHH's"
echo $name->possessive('sorted');      // "Heinemeier Hansson, David's"

sorted()

Returns the name in "Last, First" format suitable for sorting.

echo $name->sorted();   // "Heinemeier Hansson, David"
echo $single->sorted(); // "Cher"

Utility Methods

equals()

Compares two PersonName objects for equality.

$name1 = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');
$name2 = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');
$name3 = new PersonName('Jason', 'Fried');

echo $name1->equals($name2); // true
echo $name1->equals($name3); // false

String and JSON Conversion

PersonName implements both Stringable and JsonSerializable interfaces:

$name = new PersonName('David', 'Heinemeier Hansson');

// String conversion returns full name
echo (string) $name; // "David Heinemeier Hansson"

// JSON serialization returns full name
echo json_encode($name); // "David Heinemeier Hansson"

Performance Note: All computed properties (familiar, abbreviated, sorted, etc.) are cached for performance. The first call computes the value, later calls return the cached result.

Error Handling

The package throws InvalidArgumentException in these cases:

// Empty first name
new PersonName(''); // throws InvalidArgumentException

// Invalid possessive method
$name->possessive('invalid'); // throws InvalidArgumentException

Unicode Support

The package fully supports international names:

$name = new PersonName('José', 'García');

echo $name->familiar(); // "José G."

Laravel Integration

When using Laravel, you can leverage the included cast for seamless Eloquent integration:

Configuration

The package works out of the box with Laravel's casting system. By default, it expects first_name and last_name columns in your database, but you can customize this:

use HosmelQ\NameOfPerson\PersonNameCast;

// Default configuration - uses first_name and last_name columns
class User extends Model
{
    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'name' => PersonNameCast::class,
        ];
    }
}

// Custom column names
class BlogPost extends Model
{
    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'author_name' => PersonNameCast::class.':author_first,author_last',
        ];
    }
}

Alternatively, you can use the fluent helper method:

class BlogPost extends Model
{
    protected function casts(): array
    {
        return [
            'author_name' => PersonNameCast::using('author_first', 'author_last'),
        ];
    }
}

Usage Examples

Basic Usage

$user = new User();

$user->name = 'David Heinemeier Hansson';

echo $user->name->familiar(); // "David H."

JSON Serialization

$user = User::find(1);

return response()->json([
    'user' => $user->name, // "David Heinemeier Hansson"
]);

Testing

composer test

Credits

• Hosmel Quintana
• Inspired by Basecamp's name_of_person Ruby gem
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.