There is a treasure trove of people-related information floating around the web, ranging from digitized public records to social media profiles and online resumes. If you’re trying to research someone and you know enough details about them, such as their full name, associates, and the county in which they live, there are higher chances that you can locate this person through your own research.

Yet, there are cases when we only know limited information about someone and we wish to learn more about them. For instance, you may encounter a situation similar to that of an AVForums member who is seeking ways to find someone’s address but all they got is their name¹. In another case, a user was trying to locate someone’s social media profile, but all they know about the person is only a name and state². When you only have a name to work with, it can be tricky to start your investigation. Rest assured, in this post, we will delve into the most efficient methods for searching for someone online using just their name.

1. TruthFinder

One of the best people search tools on the market, bang for buck, is definitely TruthFinder. It scours millions of detailed public records from across the web to find people’s background details, criminal and traffic records and online profiles.

For example, during my research, I was able to source a report that included the individual’s birth information, contact details, address history, potential family members, and a few possible social media profiles. Another search yielded not only basic details but also a criminal record tied to a different person. It’s important to note that the information available in each report is not guaranteed and may vary depending on your search parameters.

To see if you can find someone’s information with this tool, all you need to do is purchase the membership, log into your account, and search by their name, email address, phone number, or physical address. Depending on the plan you choose, the membership costs between $4.99 and $29.73 per month.

2. BeenVerified

BeenVerified is also a decent people search tool that has been around since 2007. It’s one of the most versatile people search engines that allows you to search for someone’s information by name, phone number, email, address, and username. Plus, it lets you look up vehicle information by license plate and VIN.

Using this tool is easy. Just go to BeenVerified, purchase a membership, and search the name of the individual you would like to investigate. BeenVerified will return reports matching your search information. For your reference, below is a report I generated with this tool; it includes the person’s age, date of birth, contact information, possible relatives, criminal records, job and education history, and social media profiles.

BeenVerified’s membership has two payment tiers, and all tiers are limited to 100 reports per month:

• 1-month membership — $29.99/month
• 3-month membership — $19.49/month

3. Social Catfish

Social Catfish is an online dating investigation service that has one of the most comprehensive collections of dating site profiles and background information.

It allows you to verify the identity of someone you met online, check someone’s profiles on different social media/dating sites, view detailed background information using just a name.

Just go to Social Catfish. Type the person’s name into the search bar and click Search Now to see what you can pull out with this tool.

4. Spokeo

Spokeo is another powerful people finder you can turn to when you need to find someone’s background information.

Details you get might include the person’s phone number, physical address, email, social media profiles, job history, relatives, criminal record, and more when available.

We’ll show you how to use the name lookup feature to bring up the details associated with the person with Spokeo.

1. Go to Spokeo.

2. Type the information you have about that person into the search bar and click SEARCH NOW.

3. Spokeo then searches for the person’s full name, age, address, family info carrier details, and more.

5. PeopleFinders

PeopleFinders is a leading Data-as-a-Service provider that has one of the most comprehensive collections of public records data available. It provides various ways to confidentially look up information about the person you want to track down and allows you to find detailed information related to that individual.

What we like most about the tool is, unlike many other people search sites, PeopleFinders explains what the report did and didn’t find before you pay and it even allows you to view a few details of the search result for free, such as the person’s age, family members, and the first few digits of his/her phone number. 

1. Go to the PeopleFinders.

2. Type the person’s name, phone number, email, or address and hit Search.

3. You’ll get up-to-date information about the person, such as the name, address, phone number, and other pertinent background info.

6. Google

Google is much more than just a search engine. It offers different search tools to locate individuals from billions of databases. According to a personal researcher on Reddit, you’d be surprised by the amount of information you can find through search engines alone³.

If you already have the name of the person you’d like to find, just type it into the Google search field. Make sure you put quotation marks around the name. For example, if you want to look for information related to James Smith, type “James Smith” into the search bar. This will tell Google that you’re only looking for an exact match, instead of pages containing the name James or Smith.

If you know any other information associated with that person, such as the address, company name, etc., try combining that piece of information with the name to see if you can find anything that leads on. Chances are, if the person has a combination of these things listed on their social media profile, it may well come up as a result!

7. Social media

Not all websites are indexed by Google, especially social media sites that require login before access. So consider searching the name on the sites where you have accounts.

Start with major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to find profiles associated with the person. If you find one, explore their posts and search their username on other sites for more information.

Conclusion

Finding someone online with only a name can be challenging, especially when you are trying to locate someone with a common name like what this CityData user has experienced – unfortunately, their searches across various websites yielded no results⁴.

It takes time and effort to search for people online. If you want fast and detailed information about someone, try using advanced people search tools. If you don’t feel like forking out the dough, turn to the more old fashioned techniques – a Google search might as well help.

1. DodgeTheViper. (2007, Dec 18). Finding people ! [Online forum post]. AVforums. https://www.avforums.com/threads/finding-people.672003/ ↩︎
2. r/OSINT [u/Bill-Shap]. (2023, Aug 04). Is there a way to search for a social media account with only a name and a state? [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/OSINT/comments/15h9eyy/is_there_a_way_to_search_for_a_social_media/ ↩︎
3. r/RBI [deleted user]. (2019, Apr 08). Honestly, when I worked in personal research, the first thing we did was just throw their name and email into Google [Comment on the online forum post How can I find information about someone online? Is there any legit websites?]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/comments/baklh1/comment/ekcausx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 ↩︎
4. Cari111. (2018, Jan 20). searching for someone with a common name (searches, birth, member). [Online forum post]. CityData. https://www.city-data.com/forum/people-search/2875214-searching-someone-common-name.html ↩︎