PowerShell Weekly
PowerShell Weekly

Generate Random Names

Matthew Dowst 
Function Get-RandomNames{
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [OutputType([Object])]
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
		[int] $count=10
    )
    
    $Webfemale = Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdowst/RandomDataLookups/master/People/popular-female-first.txt"
    $Webmale = Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdowst/RandomDataLookups/master/People/popular-male-first.txt"
    $WebSurname = Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdowst/RandomDataLookups/master/People/popular-surnames.txt"

    $female = @()
    $female = $Webfemale.Content.Split("`n").Trim() | ?{$_.length -gt 2} 

    $male = @()
    $male = $Webmale.Content.Split("`n").Trim() | ?{$_.length -gt 2} 

    $Surname = @()
    $Surname = $WebSurname.Content.Split("`n").Trim() | ?{$_.length -gt 2} 

    $names = @()
    for($i=0; $i -ne $count; $i++)
    {
        if(($i % 2) -eq 1)
        {
        $names += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Given=$($male | Get-Random);
                                                    Middle=$($male | Get-Random);
                                                    Surname=$($Surname | Get-Random)}
        }
        else
        {
        $names += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Given=$($female | Get-Random);
                                                    Middle=$($female | Get-Random);
                                                    Surname=$($Surname | Get-Random)}
        }
    }

    Return $names
}
Details
Pulls a list of all popular male and female names from the last 50 years and the 500 most common last names, and combines them to create a PowerShell object with a list of randomly generated names.

Example
PS C:\> Function Get-RandomNames{
>>     [CmdletBinding()]
>>     [OutputType([Object])]
>>     param(
>>         [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)]
>> 		[int] $count=10
>>     )
>>     $Webfemale = Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdowst/RandomDataLookups/master/People/popular-female-first.txt"
>>     $Webmale = Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdowst/RandomDataLookups/master/People/popular-male-first.txt"
>>     $WebSurname = Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mdowst/RandomDataLookups/master/People/popular-surnames.txt"
>>     $female = @()
>>     $female = $Webfemale.Content.Split("`n").Trim() | ?{$_.length -gt 2}
>>     $male = @()
>>     $male = $Webmale.Content.Split("`n").Trim() | ?{$_.length -gt 2}
>>     $Surname = @()
>>     $Surname = $WebSurname.Content.Split("`n").Trim() | ?{$_.length -gt 2}
>>     $names = @()
>>     for($i=0; $i -ne $count; $i++)
>>     {
>>         if(($i % 2) -eq 1)
>>         {
>>         $names += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Given=$($male | Get-Random);
>>                                                     Middle=$($male | Get-Random);
>>                                                     Surname=$($Surname | Get-Random)}
>>         }
>>         else
>>         {
>>         $names += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Given=$($female | Get-Random);
>>                                                     Middle=$($female | Get-Random);
>>                                                     Surname=$($Surname | Get-Random)}
>>         }
>>     }
>>     Return $names
>> }
>> Get-RandomNames


Given   Middle   Surname
-----   ------   -------
Sofia   Renee    Luna
Douglas Camden   Klein
Tara    Kristi   Frazier
Johnny  Cory     Floyd
Lucy    Kendra   Sullivan
Colby   Chase    Holmes
Nora    Shelly   Hansen
Blake   Shannon  Williams
Holly   Penelope Mitchell
Grayson Ezra     Hampton

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