4. Interpreting RNI Scores
RNI scores range from 0 to 1. The higher the score, the greater the confidence that this a relevant match. A score of 1.0 indicates that the query name string and result name string are identical (including all name properties), and scores less than 1.0 for similar names where the query name and index name vary with respect to one or more properties (such as language of origin) and one or more of the following:
| Variation | Example(s) |
|---|---|
| Phonetic and/or spelling differences | Nayif Hawatmeh and Nayif Hawatma |
| Missing name components | Mohammad Salah and Mohammad Abd El-Hamid Salah |
| Rarity of a shared name component | Two English names that contain Ditters are more likely to match than two names that contain Smith |
| Initials | John F. Kennedy and John Fitzgerald Kennedy |
| Nicknames | Bobby Holguin and Robert Holguin |
| "Cousin" or cognate names | Pedro Calzon and Peter Calzon |
| Uppercase/Lowercase | Rosa Elena PACHECO and Rosa Elena Pacheco |
| Reordered name components | Zedong Mao and Mao Zedong |
| Variable Segmentation | Henry Van Dick and Henry VanDick |
| Corresponding name fields | For [Katherine][Anne][Cox], the similarity with [Katherine][Ann][Cox] is higher than the similarity with [Katherine Ann][Cox] |
| Truncation of name elements | For Sawyer, the similarity with Sawy is higher than the similarity with Sawi. |
Scoring is commutative: the scores for two given names are always the same, regardless of which name is in the index and which name is in the query.