This Script will populate the nicknames table from the data in the Nickname and Diminutive Names Lookup Project.

NicknamePopulate.rb

puts "Populate Nickname table"
# Processes file in CSV format from http://code.google.com/p/nickname-and-diminutive-names-lookup/
puts "Truncating nicknames table"
Nickname.delete_all

puts "Downloading nicknames CSV file from http://code.google.com/p/nickname-and-diminutive-names-lookup/"
file = Net::HTTP.get 'nickname-and-diminutive-names-lookup.googlecode.com', '/files/names1.2.csv'
puts "Done"

puts "Parsing file"
file.split("\n").in_groups_of(100, false) do |group|
  group.each do |line|
    names = line.chomp.split(',')
    diminutive = names[0]
    result = Nickname.create!(:name => diminutive)
    result.update_attributes!(:nickname_id => result.id)
    names[1..-1].each do |nickname|
      Nickname.create!(:name => nickname, :nickname_id => result.id)
    end
  end
  puts "Processed #{Nickname.count} records"
end
puts "Finished processing #{Nickname.count} records"