diff --git a/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/Name.java b/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/Name.java
index 3cea2db6b..c91b946f4 100644
--- a/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/Name.java
+++ b/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/Name.java
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ public class Name {
 
     public static final String EXAMPLE = "John Doe";
     public static final String MESSAGE_NAME_CONSTRAINTS = "Person names should be spaces or alphabetic characters";
-    public static final String NAME_VALIDATION_REGEX = "[\\p{Alpha} ]+";
+    public static final String NAME_VALIDATION_REGEX = "[\\p{Alpha}\\, ]+";
 
     public final String fullName;
 
@@ -60,5 +60,28 @@ public boolean equals(Object other) {
     public int hashCode() {
         return fullName.hashCode();
     }
+    
+    public boolean isSimilar(Name other) {
+        if (other == null) {
+            return false;
+        }
+        String n1 = this.toString().toLowerCase();
+        String n2 = other.toString().toLowerCase();
+        
+        String[] arr1 = n1.split("[,\\s+]+");
+        String[] arr2 = n2.split("[,\\s+]+");
+        
+        for (String s1:arr1) {
+            for (String s2:arr2) {
+                if (s1.equals(s2)) {
+                    return true;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        
+        
+        
+        return false;
+    }
 
 }
diff --git a/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/NameTest.java b/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/NameTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9eabda45a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/seedu/addressbook/data/person/NameTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package seedu.addressbook.data.person;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import seedu.addressbook.data.exception.IllegalValueException;
+
+public class NameTest {
+
+    private Name n1;
+
+    @Before
+    public void setup() throws IllegalValueException {
+        n1 = new Name("John K Smith");
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void similarInput_returnsTrue() throws IllegalValueException {
+        final Name n2 = new Name("John");
+        assertTrue(n1.isSimilar(n2));
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void nullInput_returnsFalse() {
+        final Name n2 = null;
+        assertFalse(n1.isSimilar(n2));
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void caseInsensitiveInput_returnsTrue() throws IllegalValueException {
+        final Name n2 = new Name("john");
+        assertTrue(n1.isSimilar(n2));
+        
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    public void nameWithCommaInput_returnsTrue() throws IllegalValueException {
+        final Name n2 = new Name("Smith, John K");
+        assertTrue(n1.isSimilar(n2));
+        
+    }
+
+}