title: Parsing Human Names and matching them in Ruby
body: <p>I'm looking for a gem or project that would let me identify that two names are the same person.  For example</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><code>J.R. Smith == John R. Smith == John Smith == John Roy Smith == Johnny Smith</code></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I think you get the idea.  I know nothing is going to be 100% accurate but I'd like to get something that at least handles the majority of cases.  I know that last one is probably going to need a database of nicknames.</p>