Name-search system and method

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a user, a first portion of a personal name, the first portion comprising one or more characters of a first name, a nickname, a middle name or a last name;

converting the first portion to a normalized portion of the personal name by reducing the one or more characters to their simplest equivalents;

searching a main index to identify one or more first keys matching the normalized portion of the personal name;

searching a phonetic index to identify one or more second keys matching the normalized portion of the personal name;

compiling a first plurality of suggested matches, the first plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items corresponding to the one or more first keys and indexed items corresponding to the one or more second keys; and

presenting, to the user, at least a portion of the first plurality of suggested matches.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising ranking the plurality of suggested matches according to a predicted relevance to the user.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising permuting the normalized portion of the personal name to identify one or more typographical permutations thereof having a Damerau-Levenshtein distance of one.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising searching both the main index and the phonetic index to identify one or more third keys matching the one or more typographical permutations.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of suggested matches further comprises indexed items corresponding to the one or more third keys.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from the user, a second portion of the personal name, the second portion being adjacent to and received after the first portion, the second portion comprising one or more characters, the first and second portions collectively forming a string of characters.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising converting the string of characters to a normalized string of characters by reducing the one or more characters of the string of characters to their simplest equivalents.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising searching the main index to identify one or more fourth keys matching the normalized string of characters.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising searching the phonetic index to identify one or more fifth keys matching the normalized string of characters.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising compiling a second plurality of suggested matches, the second plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items corresponding to the one or more fourth keys and indexed items corresponding to the one or more fifth keys.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising presenting, to the user, at least a portion of the second plurality of suggested matches.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the presenting of at least a portion of the first plurality of suggested matches occurs after the receiving of the first portion and before the receiving of the second portion.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the presenting of at least a portion of the second plurality of suggested matches occurs after the receiving of the second portion.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from the user, a second portion of the personal name, the second portion being adjacent to and received after the first portion, the second portion comprising one or more characters, the first and second portions collectively forming a string of characters.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising converting the string of characters to a normalized string of characters by reducing the one or more characters of the string of characters to their simplest equivalents.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising searching the main index to identify one or more third keys matching the normalized string of characters.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising searching the phonetic index to identify one or more fourth keys matching the normalized string of characters.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising compiling a second plurality of suggested matches, the second plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items corresponding to the one or more third keys and indexed items corresponding to the one or more fourth keys.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising presenting, to the user, at least a portion of the second plurality of suggested matches.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a user, a portion of a personal name, the portion comprising three or more characters of a first name, a nickname, a middle name or a last name;

converting the portion to a normalized portion by reducing the three or more characters to their simplest equivalents;

permuting the normalized portion to identify one or more permutations thereof having a Damerau-Levenshtein distance of one;

searching a main index to identify one or more first keys matching the normalized portion or the one or more permutations;

searching a phonetic index to identify one or more second keys matching the normalized portion or the one or more permutations;

compiling a first plurality of suggested matches, the first plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items corresponding to the one or more first keys and indexed items corresponding to the one or more second keys; and

presenting, to the user, at least a portion of the first plurality of suggested matches.

21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising receiving, from the user, a second portion of the personal name, the second portion being adjacent to and received after the first portion, the second portion comprising one or more characters, the first and second portions collectively forming a string of characters.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising converting the string of characters to a normalized string of characters by reducing the one or more characters of the string of characters to their simplest equivalents.

23. The method of claim 22 , further comprising searching the main index to identify one or more third keys matching the normalized string of characters.

24. The method of claim 23 , further comprising searching the phonetic index to identify one or more fourth keys matching the normalized string of characters.

25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising compiling a second plurality of suggested matches, the second plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items corresponding to the one or more third keys and indexed items corresponding to the one or more fourth keys.

26. The method of claim 25 , further comprising presenting, to the user, at least a portion of the second plurality of suggested matches.

27. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a user, a first portion of a personal name, the first portion comprising one or more characters of a first name, a nickname, a middle name or a last name;

converting the first portion to a normalized portion of the personal name by reducing the one or more characters to their simplest equivalents;

searching a main index to identify one or more first keys matching the normalized portion of the personal name;

searching a phonetic index to identify one or more second keys matching the normalized portion of the personal name;

scoring typographically each of the one or more second keys;

identifying, via the scoring, a higher scoring portion of the one or more second keys;

compiling a first plurality of suggested matches, the first plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items correspond to the one or more first keys and indexed items corresponding to the higher scoring portion of the one or more second keys; and

presenting, to the user after the compiling, at least a portion of the first plurality of suggested matches.

28. A system for managing organizational data, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor perform operations including

receiving data from a first user defining a first organizational relationship,

receiving data from a second user defining a second organizational relationship,

generating a set of organizational relationships wherein the set of organizational relationships includes the first organizational relationship and the second organizational relationship,

receiving, from a third user, a first portion of a personal name, the first portion comprising one or more characters of a first name, a nickname, a middle name or a last name,

converting the first portion to a normalized portion of the personal name by reducing the one or more characters to their simplest equivalents,

searching a main index to identify one or more first keys matching the normalized portion of the personal name,

searching a phonetic index to identify one or more second keys matching the normalized portion of the personal name,

compiling a first plurality of suggested matches, the first plurality of suggested matches comprising the union of indexed items corresponding to the one or more first keys and indexed items corresponding to the one or more second keys, and

presenting, to the user, at least a portion of the first plurality of suggested matches.