Bad Usernames
API service that checks whether a username should be blocked, reserved, or treated as unsafe. English-first, with selected multilingual reserved words. Exact matches block a username; substring matches are advisory.
Two related projects: the API service is Apache-2.0 licensed, while the separate bad_usernames JSON dataset has an MIT license. Dataset contributions reach the hosted API when its snapshot is refreshed.
- Development
- Alpha
- Release
- Released
- Deployment
- Live
- Latest update
- — API and dataset clarified
- Recently updated
- Live
- Code available
Links
- Project site
- github.com/flurdy/bad_usernames_api
- Live site
- badusernames.flurdy.io
Dates
- Created
- 2019-08
- Updated
- 2026-10-30
Versions
- Live
- 0.1.0-SNAPSHOT
- In development
- 0.1.0-SNAPSHOT
License
- Type
- Apache 2.0 (API)
Characteristics
Tags
Technologies
News
- 2026-Oct-30
- API and dataset clarified
- 2026-Jul-09
- badusernames.flurdy.io is live
- 2019-Aug-30
- Added Badusernames to code.flurdy.com
Comments
- 2026-Jun-30
- Scope should be multilingual where it is practical and high-value, such as common reserved/system words like admin or support in major languages, but intentionally English-first to avoid an unbounded language-maintenance problem.
- 2026-Jun-30
- Keep the public project and service name as Bad Usernames for now: it is direct, searchable, and matches the existing bad_usernames repository. A more distinctive branded name can be revisited later if the service grows beyond username blocklist checks.