The more information you have, the better are your prospects of finding someone, but this isn’t to say you can’t track them down with just a first name and a city. Here is How can I Find an old Friend with Just a First Name? To find friends online, your best bet is to turn to social media, as well as a background check site and Google.
Of course, only having a common first name and a city to go off won’t get you far, even if the city isn’t a megapolis. This is why you need to remember as much as you can about them, such as information regarding where they worked or lived. Then, you can combine these details to search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
If you want to find a friend named Mike who used to work at Citibank, for example, you can type in “Mike + Citibank + (name of the city).” A career site or employee listing with the person’s details might show up. It’s possible to create a search string if you also recall their hobbies, employment history, educational history, or hometown. This will maximize your chances of obtaining relevant, up-to-date information.
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Background Check Sites
Most background check sites will provide enough information to make sure the individual you’ve found is the one you were looking for. In addition, you’ll need to pay a fee to get more details, which is well worth it in most cases.
Find Them Using a Picture
You might have an old picture of your old friend that you weren’t thinking of using because they likely look different now. However, it may still help you. For instance, you can track someone down using Google’s inbuilt image search tool. If they have used that picture on any site, you will find it and, possibly, more information after that.
In your address bar, enter images.google.com. Then, click on the camera icon and then on “Upload an image.” Also, Google doesn’t have the only image search out there. Tools such as PimEyes and TinEye will yield results that are just as good, if not better. Two further options are Pinterest Image Search and Bing Image Search. Hopefully, searching using the picture will take you to the information you were looking for.
Social Media
Using social media, you might be able to find your old friend using only their first name and the last city where they lived or their hometown. Search by the first name on the medium they’re likely to use most often and slowly narrow your search down to one city. Needless to say, a lot of patience is required in this process – unless the person has a rare name. Using additional details, such as organizational memberships, schools attended or graduated, and workplace, will help in your search.
Facebook lets you search for old friends by the first name, among other criteria. In addition, you should look up any mutual friends as well. Facebook’s advanced search functionality can be very helpful. At the top of your feed, you can enter your old friend’s first name in the search box. On the left panel, select “Choose a Location” when the results pop up. In the People tab, there will be a list of people in that city with that name. Your friends will be first on the list, followed by friends of friends.
LinkedIn and other social networks make similar search options available. If you have their email address or an old phone number by any chance, you can upload this contact information to search.
Other Tools
The more information about someone you have, the better. Use ZabaSearch, White Pages, or other people search tools to do a reverse phone lookup for a specific number or to find someone in a given geographical area. If you’re able to remember their last name as well, you can search your social media of choice for it.
Final Thoughts
When you find further details using one search tool, you can use them to perfect searches on other platforms. For example, you might add the last name you got on Facebook to their hometown and then move to search Google or Bing with their full name and place of birth.
