WhatsMyName: a username detection dataset with a schema file, no bundled checker, and two different licenses
Community-maintained dataset of 700+ websites for finding accounts by username — powers OSINT and digital footprint tools.
At a glance
- What is it?
- WhatsMyName is one JSON file describing how to check 700 plus websites for a username, plus the tooling ecosystem that reads it. The checker scripts were removed in May 2023, so accuracy now depends on contributors, and the license is stated in two places that do not match.
- Who is it for?
- Treat WhatsMyName as data to embed, not as a tool to run. The three inclusion rules are strict enough that you can predict what the file will never contain, and the schema file means you can validate a fork before you trust it, which matters because detection accuracy is the entire value proposition and the project says so itself.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Check first. The repository uses a licence we do not classify automatically, so read its LICENSE file before any commercial use.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 19 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly Python, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on October 4, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
Each entry is a URL, a success signal, and a not-found signal
The whole project is a single JSON file, `wmn-data.json`, and each entry describes one website: what URL to query, what a successful response looks like, and what a not-found response looks like. Tools and scripts read that file and do the checking, which is the separation the file is named after, since anyone can build a checker and the data stays accurate regardless of which tool you use. Two files sit beside it that are worth knowing about. `wmn-data-schema.json` describes the expected shape of the data, and `sample.json` holds an example entry. Neither is mentioned in the prose sections, so a fork has both the contract and a worked example available without reading anyone's code.
Three inclusion rules decide what can never be in the file
A site qualifies only if it is publicly accessible, so anything behind a paywall or a login wall is out, if the username appears directly in the profile URL, and if the site does not transform the username, with sites that swap usernames for numeric IDs named as the failing case. Those three rules are strict enough to predict the gaps. A site that moved to opaque identifiers is permanently ineligible no matter how stable it is, and a member-only community is not a candidate at all. The consequence for a user is that a negative result from this dataset is weak evidence: a profile that exists on an ineligible site produces no entry to check, so absence from the results never means absence from the web.
The bundled checkers were removed in May 2023 and never came back
A callout in the How It Works section records the decision: in May 2023 the bundled checker scripts were removed and focus shifted entirely to maintaining the data file. What replaced them is a long list of third-party tools, including Reveal My Name, described as the original Python checker that shipped with this project and now maintained by someone else, and Naminter, built specifically for this dataset and advertising Cloudflare bypass, browser impersonation, and concurrent checking. So the repository's own checking capability is a historical reference, and every current option lives in someone else's repository. The file being the product also means that accuracy is now a contribution problem, and the project says plainly that websites change their profile URLs, response codes, and page content constantly.
Two prose statements, one license file, and an unasserted field
The License section states that the work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and the badge at the top of the file points at the same deed. The recorded license for the repository is empty, marked as no assertion rather than as MIT or as CC BY-SA 4.0, which means the metadata does not agree with the prose and no machine-readable license is attached. Meanwhile the tree contains a LICENSE.md file whose contents are not reproduced anywhere in the visible file, so three artifacts have to be compared by hand: an unasserted metadata field, two matching prose statements, and one text nobody can read from the documentation. That matters beyond bookkeeping, because the tools section invites other projects to embed this data in their own checkers.
The hosted front end is a different project with a different author
The answer to just search a username is a link out, not a command: whatsmyname.app, described as a free browser-based tool built directly on this dataset with no installation required, by Chris Poulter. Its listed features are filtering by category, exporting to CSV, and always pulling the latest data. Because it is hosted and separate, two things follow. The dataset being updated does not mean a hosted copy of it is updated, which is what the always-pulls-the-latest-data claim is doing work on, and the reputation of that site tells you nothing about the accuracy of a file you embed. The section also routes readers who already have a tool to the third-party list instead, so the project's own answer to its own front-end question is that there are many.
The tool list spans bypass advertising, desktop apps, and Maltego transforms
The tools tables are grouped by how you run them: web based, command-line and scripts, desktop and platforms, and self-hosted and containerized. What the grouping does not do is separate data consumption from active probing. The same table that lists a bookmarklet for entering a username in a popup lists a checker advertising Cloudflare bypass and browser impersonation, and the desktop group includes a Maltego transform set that checks usernames in real time from the JSON file and a Spiderfoot integration in its `sfp_account` module. Two container entries sit at the bottom, a Flask web app and a Docker API wrapper. So adopting this data can put an anti-bot bypass in the request path, and that choice belongs to the tool you pick rather than to the dataset.
Contribution is split by skill level, and the project has no releases
Three contribution paths are offered by experience level: a form for people with no technical background, an issue with a link to an example profile for people comfortable with GitHub, and a fork plus pull request for people comfortable with JSON and HTTP. Detailed format requirements live in CONTRIBUTING.md rather than in the visible file. Scale is stated once, as 700 plus websites in the description, with no per-entry count, no changelog view, and no GitHub releases, so there is no release history to date the data against. The origin is given as 2015, created by Micah Hoffman as a personal fix for a frustration with false positives in existing checkers, and the last push is dated 2026-09-16. The only channel named for staying current is a LinkedIn company page.
Editorial conclusion
Treat WhatsMyName as data to embed, not as a tool to run. The three inclusion rules are strict enough that you can predict what the file will never contain, and the schema file means you can validate a fork before you trust it, which matters because detection accuracy is the entire value proposition and the project says so itself. Two things to settle first. License status is genuinely ambiguous: the metadata records no license, the badge and the License section say CC BY-SA 4.0, and the tree holds a LICENSE.md, so ask upstream which text governs before you redistribute. And the hosted front end is a separate project by a separate author, so if that is the tool you actually need, evaluate that project on its own terms rather than reading its reputation as this dataset's.
Frequently asked questions
What is WhatsMyName and what does it contain?
A community-maintained dataset in a single JSON file, wmn-data.json, where each entry gives the URL to query for one site, what a successful response looks like, and what a not-found response looks like. The repository adds a schema file, a sample entry, and a contribution guide.
How do I use WhatsMyName on the web?
For a browser, the file points to whatsmyname.app, a free tool built directly on the dataset with no installation required, by Chris Poulter, which filters by category and exports to CSV. If you would rather use your own tool, the same section lists command-line checkers, desktop apps, and self-hosted containers that read the JSON file.
What is WhatsMyName and what is inside the dataset?
It is a username existence dataset rather than a search engine: a dataset for finding out if a username exists across 700 plus websites, created in 2015 and used by third-party tools that do the actual checking. Its stated purpose is OSINT and digital footprint work.
What rules decide whether a site can be added to WhatsMyName?
Three: the site must be publicly accessible, the username must appear directly in the profile URL, and the site must not transform the username into a numeric ID. Sites behind paywalls or login walls are excluded by the first rule.
Does WhatsMyName still ship its own checker scripts?
No. In May 2023 the bundled checker scripts were removed and the focus shifted entirely to maintaining the data file. The original Python checker, Reveal My Name, is now maintained outside the project, and the file lists other third-party checkers instead.
How is WhatsMyName licensed?
The License section and the badge state Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. The recorded license field is empty rather than set to CC BY-SA 4.0, and a LICENSE.md file sits in the tree, so the machine-readable and prose statements are not in agreement.
Official sources
Add this badge to your README
If you maintain this project, the badge below links readers to this analysis and shows its maintenance status from the daily GitHub snapshot. Paste the markdown into your README; add ?metric=license or ?metric=stars to the image URL for a different field.
[](https://hysenlabs.com/projects/webbreacher-whatsmyname)