Overview

Evident's Identity Name Resolution allows you to ensure the biographic information (name) in your records matches the name extracted from the identity document. This matching is helpful for to solve a number of business and process problems related to identity:

  1. Names collected on forms often contain typos.

  2. Users will intentionally modify names so that checks will not be run on their real identity

  3. Legal name to nickname discrepancy

  4. Consistency of identity across multiple identity documents, checks & credentials

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Matching Algorithms

Evident offers 2 different types of matching algorithms: Strict and Fuzzy.

Fuzzy Match

  1. Match name to prevent false negatives from typos, multiple names, punctuated names, use of middle name and prefixes/suffixes
  2. Nickname matching for common names

Strict Match

  1. Match name but does not detect typos or nicknames

 

Deciding between Strict and Fuzzy matching

Pros of Strict Matching

  1. Nicknames are not allowed, must use government name
  2. Alternate names (using middle name) are allowed
  3. Prefixes/Suffixes/Punctuation are ignored in the match

Cons of Strict Matching

  1. False negatives are common because of typos. Up to 20% of names contain typos and may need to be reviewed manually. 

Pros of Fuzzy Matching

  1. Match on larger set of name variations, nicknames and alternate names are allowed
  2. Prefixes/Suffixes/Punctuation are ignored in the match
  3. Review of typos is not necessary. 99+% of names are correctly matched. 

Cons of Fuzzy Matching

  1. False positives are possible (less than 1% in the Evident test set). False positives can occur for names that have a common origin. Example of a false positive: Christian Holmes to Christina Holmes. 

Name Matching Examples

Strict Match

Name From ID

Name in Records

Match

Christopher Jackson-Holmes

Christopher Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Jackson-Holmes

Christopher Jackson

TRUE

Christopher Jackson-Holmes

Christopher Jacksonholmes

TRUE

Christopher O’Brien

Christopher Obrien

TRUE

Christopher Stuart Holmes

Christopher Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Stuart Holmes Jr

Christopher Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Stuart Holmes

Stuart Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Holmes

Chris Holmes

FALSE

Christopher Holmes

Christopher Homes

FALSE

Christian Holmes

Christina Holmes

FALSE

Christopher Holmes

Charles Holman

FALSE

Fuzzy Match

Name From ID

Name in Records

Match

Christopher Jackson-Holmes

Christopher Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Jackson-Holmes

Christopher Jackson

TRUE

Christopher Jackson-Holmes

Christopher Jacksonholmes

TRUE

Christopher O’Brien

Christopher Obrien

TRUE

Christopher Stuart Holmes

Christopher Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Stuart Holmes Jr

Christopher Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Stuart Holmes

Stuart Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Holmes

Chris Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Holmes

Christopher Homes

TRUE

Christian Holmes

Christina Holmes

TRUE

Christopher Holmes

Charles Holman

FALSE

 

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