Our I Am Not A Typo campaign has prompted Microsoft to update its English (UK) dictionaries with a more inclusive name database.
Thousands of UK baby names previously flagged as possible typos by our tech devices are now free of thered squiggle that once marked them as potentially incorrect.
Responding to feedback from customers and working with members of the I Am Not A Typo campaign, Microsoft has implemented product updates to ensure its dictionary better reflects the names of people living in modern, multicultural Britain, using official Office for National Statistics (ONS) baby name data as a guide.
The change means that thousands of names – including many of African, Asian, Eastern European, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish origin – will now be correctly recognised in Microsoft applications on desktop devices. Names previously not recognised included Ottilie, Esmae, Liyana, Zarah, Ruaridh, Eesa, Fiadh and Osian, despite thousands of real-world occurrences in the UK each year, as detailed in ONS baby name registration data.
IANAT launched in 2024, having found that 5,492 out of 13,532 (41%) given to children in England and Wales (with a minimum of three occurrences) were flagged as potential typos during tests using Microsoft Word’s English (UK) dictionary on some devices. That included names with hundreds, even thousands, of real-world occurrences, while less common names remained untouched, for example the name Esmae, which occurred 2,328 times among baby girls in the five years from 2017 to 2021, compared with 36 occurrences of the name Nigel in the same period.
Microsoft has now added hundreds of previously missing names to its English spellcheck dictionary, enhanced its pattern-matching logic to detect likely names that are not specifically listed in the ONS guide, and made name behaviour more uniform across Microsoft-supported platforms. When replicating the same testing from previous years, IANAT found that just 2% of names featured in the most recent ONS name registration data were flagged as possible typos on Microsoft apps.
Microsoft acknowledged IANAT’s role in bringing the issue to light, highlighting the importance of product feedback loops with users and continued efforts to improve systems.
We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that Microsoft has ‘spellchecked spellcheck’. It’s a positive step for everyone who has been told by their device that their name looks like a mistake. From the IANAT team, we wanted to say a huge thank you for everyone’s continued support and for the thousands of ‘typos’ who shared their stories with us!
Our mission doesn’t stop here though. So, stay tuned.
