Random name generator for writers

[Bob Newell]

Many creative writing programs have a random name generator, and many of
these can be found online. This made me jealous; I'm current developing
writer-mode, a suite of elisp tools for writers, and I wanted something
similar. So I made one and here is the first attempt; it's obviously
just a start, but it works.

It generates a random male name and a random female name from the 1990
census data. You have to download three files from the census bureau;
they're not terribly large and the link is in the code header.

The code is below. In case of problems with long line wrapping, etc., it
can also be downloaded from

http://www.bobnewell.net/filez/writer-names.el

;; ----------begin writer-names.el
;; Generate random names from the 1990 census lists.

;; For the moment, simply output one completely random male
;; name and one completely random female name. Write to
;; minibuffer and put at end of buffer *Random Names*".

;; Possible extensions are to output a group of names, have
;; male/female selection, have selection by frequency (e.g.,
;; common, rare, etc., or by cumulative percent).

;; http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/names_files.html

;; Released into the public domain.
;; Bob Newell, Honolulu, Hawai`i, April 2012.
;; Suggestions and bug reports to randomnames at bobnewell dot net.
;; No warranty, no liabilities accepted.

;; EDIT BELOW to reflect the location of the census name files
;; on your system. These files can be obtained from:

(defvar writer-male-names "/home/bnewell/data/census/dist.male.first")
(defvar writer-female-names "/home/bnewell/data/census/dist.female.first")
(defvar writer-last-names "/home/bnewell/data/census/dist.all.last")

(defvar writer-male-name-count nil)
(defvar writer-female-name-count nil)
(defvar writer-last-name-count nil)
(defvar writer-random-male-name nil)
(defvar writer-random-female-name nil)
(defvar writer-saved-buffer nil)
(defvar writer-saved-point nil)

(defvar random-init nil)

(defun writer-random-name ()
"Generate random names from census data"
(interactive)
  (if (not random-init)
    (progn
      (random t)
      (setq random-init t)
    )
  )
;; save-excursion gets messed, so do this:
  (setq writer-saved-buffer (current-buffer))
  (setq writer-saved-point (point))

;; Check existence of name files.
    (if (and (file-exists-p writer-male-names)
           (file-exists-p writer-female-names)
           (file-exists-p writer-last-names))
        (progn
;; All the name files exist, proceed.
;; Why do we do this over each time? Because the name file might
;; have changed.
          (find-file writer-male-names)
          (goto-char (point-max))
          (setq writer-male-name-count (line-number-at-pos))
          (find-file writer-female-names)
          (goto-char (point-max))
          (setq writer-female-name-count (line-number-at-pos))
          (find-file writer-last-names)
          (goto-char (point-max))
          (setq writer-last-name-count (line-number-at-pos))
;; We know the length of the files. Pick something out from them.
;;  Get a random male name.
          (goto-line (+ 1 (random writer-male-name-count)) (find-file 
writer-male-names))
          (setq writer-random-male-name (concat (writer-extract-name) " "))
          (goto-line (+ 1 (random writer-last-name-count)) (find-file 
writer-last-names))
          (setq writer-random-male-name (concat writer-random-male-name 
(writer-extract-name)))
;;   Get a random female name.
          (goto-line (+ 1 (random writer-female-name-count)) (find-file 
writer-female-names))
          (setq writer-random-female-name (concat (writer-extract-name) " "))
          (goto-line (+ 1 (random writer-last-name-count)) (find-file 
writer-last-names))
          (setq writer-random-female-name (concat writer-random-female-name 
(writer-extract-name)))
;; Output the results.   
          (switch-to-buffer "*Random Names*")
          (goto-char (point-max))
          (insert (concat writer-random-male-name "   " 
writer-random-female-name "\n"))
          (message (concat writer-random-male-name "   " 
writer-random-female-name "   (also copied to buffer *Random Names*)"))
       )
;; A name file is missing.
      (message "One or more name file is missing.")
  )

;; Restore position.
  (switch-to-buffer writer-saved-buffer)
  (goto-char writer-saved-point)
)

(defun writer-extract-name ()
"Extract and fix name in census file"
;; Assume we are already at the required line.
  (beginning-of-line)
  (capitalize (thing-at-point 'word))
)
;; ---- end writer-names.el


-- 
Bob Newell
Honolulu, Hawai`i
* Sent via NoGnus 0.18-Emacs 23.1-Ubuntu Linux 10.04 *

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