Weak alias
A name variant an authority publishes with a warning that it is too common or too partial to identify anyone on its own.
Updated 2026-07-26
Authorities distinguish between alternative names they consider reliable and ones they do not. A weak alias is typically a fragment, a very common name, or a spelling so generic that matching on it alone would sweep in unrelated people.
A match against a weak alias is therefore evidence of almost nothing by itself. It has to be combined with other identifying details — date of birth, nationality, registration number, address — before it means anything at all.
Where a source marks an alias as weak, we carry that marking through to the result and show it. Dropping it would turn a caveat published by the authority into a claim we made ourselves.
Related terms
5 entries- False positive
- A search result that resembles the query but refers to a different person or entity.
- Name match score
- A number expressing how closely a search term resembles a recorded name, and nothing more.
- SDN list
- The list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons published by the U.S. Treasury.
- Strong alias
- An alternative name an authority publishes without a reliability warning, such as a former legal name.
- Transliteration
- The rendering of a name from one writing system into another, which produces several valid spellings of the same name.