Localize Person Names

Locale-aware person name formatting built on the Unicode CLDR Person Names specification and the Localize library.

Installation

def deps do
  [
    {:localize_person_names, "~> 0.1.0"}
  ]
end

Usage

# Create a person name
{:ok, name} = Localize.PersonName.new(title: "Mr.", given_name: "José", surname: "Valim", credentials: "Ph.D.", locale: "pt")

# Format with defaults (locale-driven length, formality, addressing usage)
Localize.PersonName.to_string(name)
#=> {:ok, "José"}

# Format with explicit options
Localize.PersonName.to_string(name, format: :long, formality: :formal, usage: :referring)
#=> {:ok, "Mr. José Valim Ph.D."}

# Format in a different locale
Localize.PersonName.to_string(name, locale: :ja)
#=> {:ok, "バリム・ジョゼ"}

Options

:format — :short, :medium, or :long. Controls how many name parts appear. Default is derived from the formatting locale.
:usage — :addressing (speaking to someone), :referring (speaking about someone), or :monogram (abbreviated, e.g., initials). Default is :addressing.
:formality — :formal or :informal. Controls whether titles, credentials, and full names are used versus nicknames and abbreviated forms. Default is derived from the formatting locale.
:order — :given_first, :surname_first, or :sorting. Default is derived from the person name's locale and the formatting locale.
:locale — The formatting locale. Default is Localize.get_locale().

Person Name Fields

Field	Description	Example
`given_name`	Primary given name (required)	"José"
`surname`	Family name	"Valim"
`title`	Honorific	"Mr.", "Dr."
`other_given_names`	Middle name(s) or patronymic	"Carlos"
`informal_given_name`	Nickname or casual form	"Zé"
`surname_prefix`	Tussenvoegsel / particle	"von", "de"
`other_surnames`	Secondary/maternal surname	"González"
`generation`	Generation marker	"Jr.", "III"
`credentials`	Accreditation	"Ph.D.", "MD"
`preferred_order`	Explicit ordering preference	`:given_first`, `:surname_first`
`locale`	Locale of the name data	`"pt"`, `Localize.LanguageTag.t()`

Integrating existing structs

Any struct can participate in person name formatting, either through the Localize.PersonName.Convertible protocol or through the Localize.PersonName behaviour. See Integrating existing name structs for the full comparison and recommendations.

MF2 message formatting

A :personName MF2 function is provided as Localize.PersonName.MF2 for use with Localize.Message. See Using Localize.PersonName with Localize.Message for formal and informal worked examples.

Guides

Integrating existing name structs — two ways to wire existing domain structs (%User{}, %Customer{}, etc.) into the formatter: the Localize.PersonName.Convertible protocol (recommended) and the Localize.PersonName behaviour.
Using Localize.PersonName with Localize.Message — integrating person name formatting into MF2 message templates via a custom function, with formal and informal worked examples.

Conformance

Test coverage

39,731 tests across 120 CLDR locales, 0 failures. Test data is from the CLDR person name test suite, which provides format conformance tests for each locale covering all combinations of order, length, usage, and formality.

Locale coverage

Of the 128 CLDR locale test data files available, 120 pass all tests. The 8 excluded locales and their reasons are documented in specification_deviances.md and summarised below:

Locales	Failures	Cause
si, my, km, ml	61	Word-break segmentation differences for transliterated foreign names in these scripts.
yo_BJ	27	CLDR test data expects initials but locale format data has no `-initial` modifier.
es_US, es_MX, es_419	28	Format selection tiebreaker discrepancy between spec text and CLDR test data.

Specification deviances

See specification_deviances.md for detailed analysis of four issues:

Format selection tiebreaker (es_US, es_MX, es_419) — Spec says "fewest unpopulated fields" but test data expects different selection.
Empty field removal with grouping punctuation (cs, sk) — Fixed in this implementation by detecting parentheses/brackets during literal coalescing.
Initial derivation requires UAX #29 grapheme clusters — Spec says "first grapheme cluster" without specifying UAX #29. This implementation uses UAX #29 extended grapheme clusters via unicode_string, which is required for correct initials in Brahmic scripts.
Test data / locale data mismatch (yo_BJ) — Test expectations don't match the current format patterns.

Known Limitations

See TODO.md for tracked implementation gaps.

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