Pattern

Regex for Full name

Full name with Unicode letters, apostrophes, and hyphens.

The Full name regex is ^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$ — copy it below, or open it in the explainer for a token-by-token breakdown.

The pattern

^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$

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What it matches

Alice Smith
José García
Mary O'Connor
Jean-Luc Picard

What it doesn't match

Alice 123
12345

Notes & gotchas

Names are infamously hard to validate. People may have one-word names, accents, apostrophes, hyphens, or non-Latin scripts. Use loose validation and let users self-identify.

Code in your language

Use the explainer's Code tab to generate ready-to-paste snippets in JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, and PHP for this pattern.

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Token-by-token breakdown

Every part of the pattern, left to right:

Token	Meaning
`^`	start of string (or line in multiline mode)
`[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F]`	any of: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, “u”, “0”, “C”, 0–\, “1”, “7”, “F”
`[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+`	one or more: any of: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, “u”, “0”, “C”, 0–\, “1”, “7”, “F”, “'”, “-”, “ ”
`$`	end of string (or line in multiline mode)

About this pattern

Identifying and validating user identity (names, contact info, IDs) is one of the most common reasons developers reach for regex. The pattern below handles the format check; for full validation always confirm against a source of truth (database, API, or document).

Quick usage in different languages

This exact pattern — with the correct escaping and idioms for each language:

JavaScript: /^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$/.test(value)
Python: re.match(r"^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$", value)
Java: Pattern.compile("^[A-Za-z\\u00C0-\\u017F][A-Za-z\\u00C0-\\u017F'\\- ]+$").matcher(value).matches()
C# / .NET: Regex.IsMatch(value, @"^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$")
Go: regexp.MustCompile(`^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$`).MatchString(value)
Ruby: /^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$/.match?(value)
PHP: preg_match('~^[A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F][A-Za-z\u00C0-\u017F'\- ]+$~', $value)

The explainer’s Code tab regenerates these for any pattern you paste, and the downloadable cheat sheet bundles the breakdown, all seven snippets, and the pitfalls below onto one printable page.

Common pitfalls

Anchored to the whole string. This pattern uses ^ and $, so it requires the entire input to match. To find it inside a longer text, drop the anchors and use the global (g) flag.
ASCII letters only. [a-zA-Z] excludes accented and non-Latin letters (é, ü, ß, ñ, and non-Latin scripts). For international input use Unicode properties like \p{L} with the u flag.
Escape it correctly per language. In Java and JavaScript strings each backslash must be doubled (\\d); in Python, Go, and C# use raw/verbatim strings so the backslashes survive.
Validate beyond format. Matching the format doesn't guarantee the value is real. Confirm the full name against a source of truth (database, API, or checksum) where it matters.

Related patterns

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