How to Find Someone with Only a First Name and City

Michelle Wilson - October 28, 2022

Finding someone online can be motivated by a variety of factors. Perhaps you’re a recruiter screening an employee for a new position, trying to locate a loved one, or maybe you’re just wondering what other people can find out about you.

With just a first name and city, searchers can use a people lookup tool, social media, Google, or even paid directory services to locate the right person.

Look to Your Mutual Friends

When you want to find someone with a first name and city, social media is often a great option for looking for mutual friends. However, this won’t be very useful if you don’t travel in the same social circle as the person you are looking for. But, even if you’re from the same area, there’s a good chance you’ll find that you have some Facebook friends in common.

Searchers can navigate to the “People You May Know” results, a list of all the people that Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) program believes you might share a connection with. Each result will show the mutual friends you have with the person. For those that also know the person’s age or what they look like, navigating through these results can be a little simpler.

Take a Browse Through Social Media

Social media is a great start if you’re looking for someone by first name and city. Go to the platform where the person will likely hang out and search by the first name, narrowing it down to the city. The search works best if the person has a unique name. If you’re looking for John, Sarah, or Bob in a city of tens of thousands, you’re in for a challenge.

Facebook

If you are searching for an active Facebook account, you will most likely be able to find him or her. However, not everyone has a Facebook account, and occasionally people give themselves a break by deactivating their accounts, in which case you won’t be able to find them in search results. So, if you make a reasonable effort to find someone and still can’t find them, they’re likely not on Facebook.

Here’s how to use Facebook’s advanced search functionality, so you can easily find someone. Simply type the person’s first name into the search bar at the top of a user’s Facebook feed. When the results appear on the left panel, click Choose a Location. Select the People tab to see a list of people in your city with that first name and friends of friends listed first.

Browse through the list of users, looking at their profile pictures, surnames, cities, work information, and so on, to see if you can find the person you’re looking for. If it’s a common name, you should spend more time sorting through everyone who shares it. You can also use the left sidebar filters, such as city, education, work, or mutual friends (as suggested above).

If all you know about that person is their first name, and it is a very common name like James, John, Sarah, Elizabeth, etc., it will be a little more challenging to find that person. If the above search does not yield results, you can enter the following search query into the search box.

Instead of clicking the People tab this time, click the See All button below the first few profile listings on the search results page. By doing this type of lookup, searchers may turn up additional profiles with the same name that did not appear in the previous search. Browse the list carefully until you find the person you’re looking for.

If you’re going to do some people searches that require privacy, you should delete your Facebook search history or your web browser’s history log after you finish your search. You can even use your browser’s private mode to leave no tracks on your device by disabling browsing history.

Doing a Google Search

We live in an information age, where anyone can access a significant amount with a single button click. Therefore, it should be no surprise that a searcher can glean a lot of information with a simple Google search of a person’s name. After typing in the first name, searchers will quickly see various search results pertinent to your situation. For internet superstars, simply typing their name into Google’s search box yields excellent results; however, for the average person, common names, or names with dual meanings, the process will be a little more complicated. Therefore, seasoned searchers may recommend a series of Google techniques to narrow the results field.

One tip is when you enter the first and last name of the person you’re looking for into the search box, enclose it in quotes (like “John Smith”). Additionally, when you have other information, like the person’s location, it will be worthwhile to add these details next to the person’s name.

Find Someone Using an Image

In some cases, a google search will bear fruitful. In others, you might find yourself scratching your head. In this case, some people have gotten ahead in their search with a photo. Google search includes an image-search tool that can help you find a person using only a picture. Therefore, if a similar image exists, you might be able to find the person using Google Image Search.

Searchers can use this method by navigating to images.Google.com in your browser’s address bar to search for images. Instead of typing in text, as you would in a typical Google search, searchers click on the camera in the search bar and select the “Upload an image” tab.

It’s worth noting that Google’s facial recognition technology isn’t quite as advanced as it will be someday. Other tools, such as Yandex, TinEye, and PimEyes, may produce better results. You can also use Bing Image Search and Pinterest Image Search to find images. Ideally, the image will direct you to the information you require about the individual.

Using a Person Lookup Tool

Although search engines may be your go-to when looking for information, searching for a person by first name and city is difficult. Therefore, you may find better results using a specialized tool if you don’t have any additional details.

Currently, there are numerous tools available to assist you in finding a person by first name and city. Most of these sites will provide you with enough information to ensure that it is the person you are looking for, but you will need to pay to obtain additional details.

Summary

When tracking down someone, the more information you have, the better. So, while you might only have a first name and city, finding someone by first name, city, and age is even better. Fortunately, as many methods have proven, there are still sufficient methods to identify the person you are searching for with just these two pieces of information alone.