RegEx to match names?

[Patrick D.]

There are a few different name formats out there, and I'm having trouble
incorporating them into one regex.

e.g.

George Walker Bush
George W. Bush
George Bush
G. Walker Bush
G. W. Bush
G.W. Bush

What I want is a way to always be able to identify the first+middle and
last names. I'd like the $1 to be "George Walker" or "George W." or G.
Walker", or just "George" if there is no middle. With $2, hopefully it
could contain *only* "Bush".

Can anyone help me make a regex for all the above?

 

[Sam Holden]

There are a few different name formats out there, and I'm having trouble
incorporating them into one regex.

e.g.

George Walker Bush
George W. Bush
George Bush
G. Walker Bush
G. W. Bush
G.W. Bush

What I want is a way to always be able to identify the first+middle and
last names. I'd like the $1 to be "George Walker" or "George W." or G.
Walker", or just "George" if there is no middle. With $2, hopefully it
could contain *only* "Bush".

Can anyone help me make a regex for all the above?

/(.*)\s+(\S+)/;

For something more robust you could try a module like Lingua::En:NameParse.

 

[Sam Holden]

/(.*)\s+(\S+)/;

The + in \s+ might as well be dropped, since if there are multiple
spaces, the .* is going to grab them leaving just one for the \s+ anyway.

Or the .* could be replaced with .*?, if trailing spaces in $1 aren't
wanted.