---
title: "Name Match API API Reference"
description: "AI-powered name comparison trained on 100M+ Indian name records — returns a match score (0–1) and match category for automated KYC decisions."
canonical: "https://eps.eko.in/docs/name-match"
---


> **Canonical URL:** https://eps.eko.in/docs/name-match
> This is a machine-readable Markdown version of the page for AI agents and LLMs. The primary (HTML) version lives at the canonical URL above.

# Name Match API API Reference

`POST https://staging.eko.in/ekoapi/v3/tools/kyc/name-match`

AI-powered name comparison trained on 100M+ Indian name records — returns a match score (0–1) and match category for automated KYC decisions.

Name Match is an AI-powered name comparison API built for India's complex naming conventions. Trained on over 100 million Indian name records, it handles initials, abbreviations, phonetic and regional spelling variants, salutation patterns (S/O, D/O), subset matching, and name ordering variations — returning a numeric score and match category that let you set rule-based pass/fail thresholds.

> View product & pricing details: [Name Match](https://eps.eko.in/products/name-match-api.md)

## Body parameters

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| initiator_id | string | yes | Registered mobile number of the API user (see Platform Credentials). e.g. 9962981729 |
| user_code | string | yes | User code of the retailer/agent the service is run for. e.g. 20810200 |
| client_ref_id | string | no | Unique reference id per API call, generated by your system. e.g. REQ-20260101-001 |
| name_1 | string | yes | First name string to compare (e.g. the name from a PAN card or bank record). e.g. S K Mishra |
| name_2 | string | yes | Second name string to compare against name_1 (e.g. the name from an Aadhaar or GST record). e.g. Satish Kumar Mishra |

## Headers

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| developer_key | string | yes | Static API key issued to your account after KYC. |
| secret-key | string | yes | Dynamic per-request signature: base64(HMAC-SHA256(timestamp, base64(access_key))). |
| secret-key-timestamp | string | yes | Current time in milliseconds since UNIX epoch, used to compute secret-key. Must match server time. |
| content-type | string | yes | application/json e.g. application/json |

## Response

⭐ marks fields highlighted as verifiable.

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| status | number | Primary success indicator (0 = success). |
| message | string | Human-readable response / error message. |
| response_status_id | number | Granular status id; see the shared error-codes table. |
| response_type_id | number | A unique id for every possible response shape (success or error) — useful for client logic branching and analytics. |
| data | object | API-specific response payload. |
| data.name_1 | string | The first name string as submitted in the request. |
| data.name_2 | string | The second name string as submitted in the request. |
| data.score ⭐ | number | Numeric match score between 0 and 1. Thresholds: 1.0 = Direct Match; 0.85–0.99 = Good Partial Match; 0.60–0.84 = Moderate Partial Match; 0.34–0.59 = Poor Partial Match; 0.00–0.33 = No Match. |
| data.reason ⭐ | string | Human-readable explanation of the match result — effectively the match category label along with the AI model's rationale (e.g. initials expansion, phonetic match, subset match). |

## Example request

```json
{
  "initiator_id": "9962981729",
  "user_code": "20810200",
  "client_ref_id": "REQ-20260101-001",
  "name_1": "S K Mishra",
  "name_2": "Satish Kumar Mishra"
}
```

## Example response

```json
{
  "status": 0,
  "response_status_id": 0,
  "message": "Name match successful",
  "response_type_id": 1388,
  "data": {
    "name_1": "S K Mishra",
    "name_2": "Satish Kumar Mishra",
    "score": 0.92,
    "reason": "Names match with initials expanded"
  }
}
```

## Error scenarios

| Status | Scenario |
| --- | --- |
| 200 | One or both name parameters missing or empty |
| 200 | No match — names are unrelated (score ≤ 0.33) |
| 403 | Invalid / missing developer_key — authentication failure |