WHATSMYNAME: THE USERNAME CHECKLIST YOU CAN READ

A community list of "does this username exist?" checks

WhatsMyName is, first, a dataset. It is a community-maintained collection of rules that describe how to ask a site whether a username seems to be taken. There is a web front end in front of that dataset, which is why a beginner can run a check without installing Python and without pretending to enjoy a compiler. Each rule usually carries a URL pattern, something the tool treats as "account exists", and something it treats as "account missing". The exact keys in the file move between releases. You are going to look at the file, not memorise a schema from this lesson.

That is the useful part. Username tools disagree with each other for boring reasons, and WhatsMyName is where the boredom becomes visible. Sherlock says yes, WhatsMyName says no, and instead of shrugging you can open the rule and see which status code or which snippet of text each one hoped to find. Most of the time someone changed a template, and one project updated first. The other project is still searching for a sentence the site stopped saying in March.

WhatsMyName will not tell you the person's name, age, or whether the account is the same human as a different site. It answers a narrower question: did this rule, against this URL, come back in the shape the rule calls a hit? Opening the URL is still your job. The web UI is a faster way to get the list. It is not a faster way to skip the list.

Licence, in plain speech

The WhatsMyName data is CC BY-SA 4.0. Using the web UI to learn, on a handle you own, does not require a essay. Republishing adapted rules does. Attribution and share-alike are the two obligations people forget, usually in that order. If a report of yours relies on WhatsMyName-derived checks, the method annex gets a credit line: the project name, the author community, the licence, and a link to the repo you actually read. "Various OSINT tools" is not a credit line. It is a shrug.

The dataset licence is not permission to ignore a website's terms, and it is not permission to ignore the Privacy Act. A Creative Commons licence governs the rules file. It does not govern the person whose username you typed.

Where it sits in OSINT101

WhatsMyName is one of the twelve tools. Come to it after Sherlock, so you already have the three buckets (confirmed mine, exists but not mine, false positive) and you are bored of being wrong in private. Use the web UI to get a list. Use the JSON to see why a row exists. Use your browser to decide whether the row is real.

You still need the test persona. pip_tadwell_osint101, or your own handle, registered on sites you control. A gibberish username you have never registered is the second probe: it should miss. When a gibberish username "hits", you have found a rule that says yes to everyone. That is a gift. Write down the site. Do not write down a theory about a person.

WhatsMyName is the rare tool in this course where reading the data file is the training, not the appendix.