# aptitude install rig
RIG (Random Identity Generator) is a free replacement for a shareware
program out there called 'fake'. It generates random, yet real-looking,
personal data. It is useful if you need to feed a name to a Web site,
BBS, or real person, and are too lazy to think of one yourself. Also,
if the Web site/BBS/person you are giving the information to tries to
cross-check the city, state, zip, or area code, it will check out. $ rig
Adolph Cline
739 Anton Dr
Mentor, OH 44060
(216) xxx-xxxx
$I'm curious though, where did you get your Hispanic names from? Seems like they come from a database of funny, weird and probably offensive names. No one is called like that in Spanish-speaking countries, and yes, I know the names are supposed to be fake, but just comparing the Hispanic with the American ones, you can tell there's a big difference.
Whether or not is intentional, it could be even more helpful if you use "normal" names.
Disclaimer: I'm Hispanic.
Also, Wales seems way over-represented. It has a population that's tiny compared to England, but half the names generated seem to be Welsh names such as Cerys.
Not sure about that, but other name set can have the same problems if they try to cover a language shared by lots of people (like Arabic)
Try #1: "Dante Marcelo". Dante is a very strange name for an italian, I guess it is used in the US. Marcelo lacks an "l" (it is Marcello) so it sounds Spanish instead.
Try #2: "Berto Trentino". Trentino is realistic but Berto sounds a lot like an abbreviation of "Alberto", so not a real name even if I guess there are people actually named "Berto".
Try #3: "Pupetta Rizzo". Can't imagine somebody called "Pupetta", it is something you say to small children as "Little Doll" or alike.
Here are other resources that we found that were helpful:
- http://www.generatedata.com/
- http://randomuser.me (useful for frontends)
- http://gedis-studio.com/ (not free)
Also, TIL that Hipchat doesn't always pull all the links
-Female
-Fitness instructor
-Weighing 205.9 lbs
-Standing 5 feet 1 inch
Individually, any of these things might be ok. Any three could even be possible. All four, however, just doesn't seem to work.
Actually, generating the "first boyfriend" and "my first car color" would be great too.
Actually, what about generating a facebook and linkedin profile for the fake names?
Next one had a hometown right down the road from me. Cool. She's 53 years old but her SSN starts with 180. PA's SSN range is 159 to 211, and everyone else my age has SSNs starting with 178. SSNs are assigned in-order. See the problem? Her SSN ought to be in the 160s I reckon.
Next was a 70-y/o timber and logging worker. I don't believe it.
[1]: http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/blog/2013/10/response-to-ac...
Reason: Not allowed to browse Questionable category"
Now I'm REALLY curious!
Aren't SSNs only useful for banking/credit-type services? (Perhaps someone can enlighten me.)
I don't have as much internationalization, and it doesn't generate a full user like that (it's in my todo) but perhaps it would be helpful for anyone looking for this kind of stuff.
As people are complaining of weird spanish, french, italian names, I wonder if the person who did this is brazilian.
"Mohammed Bennett" is possible but highly unlikely.
The lack of unemployed people generated seems a bit unlike real life, however.
https://elliottslaughter.com/names/rand
which uses (admittedly simple) machine learning algorithms to generate new names.
BakingBrokers.com
but it seems they are all non-registered domains, so it is indeed not a scam (and Baking is not quite Banking).
Would be a funny trick, though. Get a lot of people to use your identity generator in order to produce some backlinks.
It's more of a fun read than anything useful, really