IBM InfoSphere Global Name Management, Version 5.0

Glossary

This glossary includes terms and definitions for IBM InfoSphere Global Name Management.

The following cross-references are used in this glossary:

See refers you from a term to a preferred synonym, or from an acronym or abbreviation to the defined full form.
See also refers you to a related or contrasting term.

To view glossaries for other IBM products, go to www.ibm.com/software/globalization/terminology (opens in new window).

A

accent mark: A diacritic that is used to mark the pitch of a syllable. See also diacritic.
affix: A dependent element of a name that is added to the beginning (as a prefix), middle (as an infix), or end (as a suffix) of a name and that modifies its meaning. An affix can be directly attached to the name (such as "Mac" in "Macintosh"), separated from the name stem by punctuation (such as "O" in "O'Connell"), or separated from the name stem by white space (such as "Abd" in "Abd Allah"). Affixes are most common in family names and can sometimes identify ethnic origins. See also name stem.
alternate parse name: A possible variation of a name, which is used to improve name analysis and scoring. See also name variant.

C

cell: A group of managed processes that are federated to the same deployment manager and can include high-availability core groups.
conjoined names: A grouping of name segments that contains two or more given names, two or more titles, pairs of titles and given names, two or more entire names, or any combination of these name elements. For example, "Mr. and Mrs. John Smith" contains conjoined titles and "Mr. and Mrs. John and Mary Smith" contains conjoined titles and conjoined given names in the same construction.

D

data list: A memory-resident list of names that is constructed from an external data source. Search requests are performed against one or more data lists.
diacritic: A mark that indicates a change in the phonetic value of a character or a combination of characters.
distributed: Pertaining to programs and computerized sources of information of a computing environment that are physically located on different computer systems, while still working together as a single logical unit.

F

family name: See surname.
first name: The first given name in Anglo names. See given name and middle name.

G

given name: A name that is used to identify an individual within a group, such as a family. A person can have multiple given names. A given name is the key element of a personal name. A given name might be the only name element that is universal across all names around the world. See also surname, personal name.

H

honorific: Prefix or suffix that indicates social status that is either attained by a person or conferred upon a person. See also qualifier, title.

I

initial: A name token consisting of a single character which represents the first character of a name. Single-character name tokens ("initials") are handled differently than multi-character name tokens ("names").

J

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON): A lightweight data-interchange format that is based on the object-literal notation of JavaScript. JSON is programming-language neutral but uses conventions from languages that include C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python.
JSON: See JavaScript Object Notation.

M

matronymic: A name element that is derived from the name of a person's mother or other female ancestor.
middle name: The second given name in Anglo names. See given name and first name.

N

name field: A data construct that consists of one or more name phrases or name tokens. See also name phrase, name token.
name phrase: An inseparable unit that consists of a name stem and any affixes that are associated with that name stem. Some name phrases might be made up of multiple stems, as in a Chinese name like Mei-Hui or an English name like Mary-Anne. One or more name phrases can be combined to create a name field. See also name field, name stem, name token.
name stem: A name element that can stand alone or be combined with affixes or with other stems to form a complete name or name phrase. See also name phrase, name token.
name token: The smallest indivisible element of a name, which is delineated by white space or punctuation. Name tokens combine to form name phrases and name fields. One name token might contain multiple name parts. Name tokens are either affixes or stems. The exact function of a name token depends upon its placement in the personal name. See also name field, name phrase, name stem.
name variant: An alternative of a specified name that is considered to be equivalent to that name, but which differs from it in its particular external form. Name variants arise from spelling variations (for example, "Geoff" and "Jeff"), nicknames (for example, "Bill" for "William"), abbreviations (for example, "GPE" for "Guadalupe"), translations (for example, "Peter" for "Pierre"), or other processes.
nickname: An alternative name, often derived from other name elements, for a personal name.

O

organization name: A non-personal name that refers to a structured body of one or more persons that exists to perform some common function. Organization names typically include some type of indicator or pattern or words that identify them as non-personal names.

P

parsing: A process that analyzes text to determine its structure and divides the text into individual tokens.
parsed name: A name whose syntactic structure (that is, name phrases, name fields, titles, and qualifiers) has been defined and represented as output from the parsing process.
patronymic: A name element that is derived from the name of a person's father or other male ancestor. Both family names and given names function as patronymic names in different parts of the world.
personal name: A name that refers to an individual human being and that consists of one or more given names, surnames, titles, or qualifiers. A full personal name refers to an individual and might encode information that indicates social class, religious and political backgrounds, educational levels, ethnic or cultural backgrounds, and regional provenance. A personal name is made up of one or two name fields. See also given name, surname, title, qualifier, name field.
precision: An information retrieval measurement that specifies the proportion of relevant data to all retrieved data. Precision is a positive predictive value. Information retrieval is best measured by using both precision and recall. See also recall.
prefix: An affix that appears at the beginning of a name. For example, in the family name "de Rosa," the affix "de" is a prefix.

Q

qualifier: A term or phrase that is added to the end of a personal name to distinguish that name by specifying a generational standing (such as Junior or Senior, or "fils" in French for Junior), an achievement academic or religious rank that the person has attained (for example, Ph.D.), or a professional qualification of some kind (for example, D.D.S.). For name-matching purposes, a qualifier is considered a peripheral or minor part of a personal name. See also honorific.

R

recall: An information retrieval measurement that specifies the percentage of relevant data that is retrieved, out of all available relevant data. Recall is a measure of sensitivity. Information retrieval is best measured by using both precision and recall. See also precision.
redundancy: The use of several identical functional units, such as several disk drives or power supply systems, within one computer system in order to provide data security and a certain degree of fault tolerance in case of hardware failures.
regularization: The process of normalizing name tokens and adding those normalized names to a data list. See also name token and data list.
relational marker: A term that is included in a personal name that indicates a familial relationship between individuals. For example, in the name "Karim bin Hassan," the relational marker "bin" means "son of."
Representational State Transfer (REST): A software architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems like the World Wide Web. The term is also often used to describe any simple interface that uses XML (or YAML, JSON, plain text) over HTTP without an additional messaging layer such as SOAP.
REST: See Representational State Transfer.
Romanization: The process of transliterating any non-Roman text into the Roman alphabet. See also transliterate.

S

search strategy: A named collection of comparison parameter values that override existing or default values and that are used to conduct a search. For example, existing search strategies include standard (default values), broad (values that widen the search), and narrow (values that restrict a search). Administrators can define their own set of comparison parameter values and save them as a search strategy.
score: The result of a computational analysis. See also scoring.
scoring: The process of computing how closely the attributes for an incoming identity match the attributes of an existing entity.
SOAP: A lightweight, XML-based protocol for exchanging information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP can be used to query and return information and invoke services across the Internet.
stop word: A word that adds no meaning to an organization name and that is not included in any name comparison or name scoring.
suffix: An affix that appears at the end of a name. For example, the affix "eddin" in "Nur-eddin" is a suffix.
surname: A name that is added to a given name and identifies an individual as part of a group of people, such as a family, tribe, or caste. A surname is a key element of a personal name, along with a given name. Surnames are not used in some parts of the world. See also given name, personal name.
syntax: The arrangement of and relationship among the elements of a name (or other expression or phrase). For example, English name syntax distinguishes the given names and family names in: Todd Lane and Lane Todd.

T

TAQ: See title, affix, and qualifier.
title: The part of a personal name that represents a social, religious, or academic status, such as "Dr.," "Ms.," or "Colonel." A title is an optional part of a personal name that typically precedes given names. For name-matching purposes, a title is considered to be a peripheral or minor part of a personal name. See also honorific.
title, affix, and qualifier (TAQ): A name token that often helps identify that a string of text represents a name. While these tokens usually indicate something about the name, only affixes are part of the actual name.See also title, affix, and qualifier.
transliterate: Converting text from non-Latin alphabets to equivalent Latin characters. See also Romanization.

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