Extended approximate string matching algorithms to detect name aliases

This paper focuses on the problem of alias detection based on orthographic variations of Arabic names. Alias detection is the process to identify different variants of the same name. To detect aliases based on orthographic variations, the approximate string matching (ASM) algorithms are widely used that measure the similarities between two strings (i.e., the name and alias). ASM algorithms work well to detect various type of orthographic variations but still there is a need to develop techniques to detect correct aliases of Arabic names that occur due to the translation of Arabic names into English. An extension to widely used ASM algorithms is proposed to detect the name aliases that generate as a result of transliteration. This paper aims to improve the accuracy of the basic ASM algorithms in order to detect correct aliases. The experimental evaluation shows that proposed extension increases the accuracy of the basic algorithms to a considerable level.