GoBy

Character name generator. What do you want to go by?

Install

$ npm install goby

Run tests

$ npm test

Run example script

I included a sample file with some various use cases, decorators, list-overrides, etc.

$ npm run demo

Important methods

There are really only two exposed methods to worry about, init() and generate()

goby.init()

When you require goby, you will need to invoke init() and optionally pass in an options object, which will contain any or all of these overrides:

Option	Type	Default	Description
adjectives	Array	Included	A list of adjectives or surnames.
prefixes	Array	Included	A list of prefix words or first names.
suffixes	Array	Included	A list of suffixes or family names.
decorator	Function	R.join(SPACE)	When the name is generated, an array of the name pieces will be passed to a decorator, either internally or to one you provide here.
autoStitch	Boolean	true	If the decorator returns a string, autoStitch will join prefix/suffixes which contain a hyphen and consolidate multiple hyphens. Example hydro- man becomes hydro-man and hydro- -ionic becomes hydro-ionic.

The init() method returns an object with a generate() method.

goby.init().generate()

After you call init, you can then call generate() which will build your name. It takes an array of fragment getters. Possible array keys are as follows:

• adjective or simply adj
• prefix or simply pre
• suffix or simply suf

If you pass anything else into the array, generate() will throw an 'Unknown getter method passed to goby.generate() error.

Usage

This is intended to be used to generate random names for characters and items in games, but since all it does is combine some words in list buckets, you can use it however you see fit with whatever lists and decorators you require:

Simple, out of the box:

var goby = require('goby').init();

var name1 = goby.generate(['adj', 'pre', 'suf']); // maniacal black hurricane
var name2 = goby.generate(['adj', 'pre', 'suf']); // irresistible hydro-monkey
var name3 = goby.generate(['pre']);               // silver

Provide your own word lists

GoBy includes some comic-book style names and adjectives, but you can provide your own instead. Provided lists will be used instead of the included lists and will not be merged.

You can override any or all of the three list buckets: adjectives, prefixes, and suffixes.

var fantasyWords = {
  adjectives : ['ornate', 'ancient'],
  prefixes   : ['dragon', 'serpent'],
  suffixes   : ['claw', 'scale']
};

var goby = require('goby').init(fantasyWords);

var name1 = goby.generate(['adj', 'pre', 'suf']); // ornate serpent claw
var name2 = goby.generate(['adj', 'pre', 'suf']); // ancient dragon claw
var name3 = goby.generate(['pre']);               // serpent

Provide your own decorator

The name will be generated as fragments and added to an array, which is then passed to a decorator. If you don't provide one, GoBy will use an internal one which simply separates the fragments with a single space.

Add your decorator to the options object along with any list overrides if you have any:

var gobyOptions = {
  adjectives : ['awesome'],
  decorator  : function allCaps(pieces) { return pieces.join(' ').toUpperCase(); }
};

var goby = require('goby').init(gobyOptions);

var name1 = goby.generate(['adj', 'pre', 'suf']); // AWESOME GYRO-CRUSTACEAN
var name2 = goby.generate(['adj', 'pre', 'suf']); // AWESOME FIGHTING WEREWOLF
var name3 = goby.generate(['adj', 'adj', 'adj']); // AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME

Credit

100% of the credit for the name lists I included, and a huge THANKS goes to Lee's Useless Super Hero Generator

License

MIT, do whatever the hell you want!