How can I validate a name, middle name, and last name using regex in Java?

Question

I get a list of names and need to validate them. Some examples:

• Elizabeth T. Bang
• Elizabeth Bang
• Zaki M. F. El-Adawy
• joseph m. pasto

Answer 1

Why do you need to validate names? To catch typos or people just mashing the keyboard? Is it really worth the risk to reject a legitimate customer with an unusual name? There are people with no middle name or more than one, people who only have one name altogether, people who insist on having their title used everywhere, and of course all kinds of non-ASCII characters.