Javascript Regular Expression To Attempt To Split Name Into Title/First Name(s)/Last Name

I want to try and detect the different parts of a person's name in Javascript, and cut them out so that I can pass them onto something else. Names can appear in any format - for ex

Solution 1:

Why not split() and just check the resulting parts:

// Split on each space character
var name = "Miss Victoria C J Long".split(" ");

// Check the first part for a title/prefix
if (/^(?:Dr|Mr|Mrs|Miss|Master|etc)\.?$/.test(name[0])) {
    name.shift();
}

// Now you can access each part of the name as an array

console.log(name);
//-> Victoria,C,J,Long

Working Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/AndyE/p9ra4/

Of course, this won't work around those other issues people have mentioned in the comments, but you'd struggle on those issues even more with a single regex.

Solution 2:

var title = '';
var first_name = '';
var last_name = '';
var has_title = false;

if (name != null)
{
    var new_name = name.split(" ");

    // Check the first part for a title/prefix
    if (/^(?:Dr|Mr|Mrs|Miss|Master)\.?$/i.test(new_name[0]))
    {
        title = new_name.shift();
        has_title = true;
    }
    if (new_name.length > 1)
    {
        last_name = new_name.pop();
        first_name = new_name.join(" ");
    }
    else if(has_title)
    {
        last_name = new_name.pop();
    }
    else
    {
        first_name = new_name.pop();
    }
}

Adapted from Accepted Answer :)