How does that name sound? Name representation learning using accent-specific speech generation

Abstract

Searching for information about a specific person is a frequent online activity. In most cases, users are aided in the search process by queries containing a name in Web search engines. Typically, Web search engines provide just a few accurate results associated with a name-containing query. Most existing solutions for suggesting synonyms in online search are based on pattern matching and phonetic encoding, however very often, the performance of such solutions is less than optimal. In this paper, we propose SpokenName2Vec, a novel and generic algorithm which addresses the synonym suggestion problem by utilizing automated speech generation, and deep learning to produce novel spoken name embeddings. These embeddings capture the way people pronounce names in a particular language and accent. Utilizing a name’s pronunciation can help detect names that sound alike, but are written differently. We demonstrated the proposed approach on a large-scale dataset with more than 250,000 forenames and surnames and evaluated it on two ground truth datasets containing 7400 forenames and 25,000 surnames (including their verified synonyms). The performance of SpokenName2Vec was found superior to the 10 other algorithms evaluated, including phonetic encoding, string similarity, and machine learning algorithms. The results obtained emphasize the potential of spoken name embeddings for improved synonym suggestion.