Python name generator

Question

This is a basic name generator I just wrote and want some feedback. It basically chooses between a vowel or a consonant and appends it to a string. Note that it never puts two vowels or two consonants directly together, as it checks for that.

import random

vowels = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u']
consonants = ['b', 'c', 'd', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'v', 'x', 'y', 'z']

def generate_name(length):
    if length <= 0:
        return False

    full_syl = ''
    for i in range(length):
        decision = random.choice(('consonant', 'vowel'))

        if full_syl[-1:].lower() in vowels:
            decision = 'consonant'
        if full_syl[-1:].lower() in consonants:
            decision = 'vowel'

        if decision == 'consonant':
            syl_choice = random.choice(consonants)
        else:
            syl_choice = random.choice(vowels)

        if full_syl == '':
            full_syl += syl_choice.upper()
        else:
            full_syl += syl_choice

    return full_syl


for i in range(100):
    length = random.randint(3, 10)
    print(generate_name(length))

Answer 1

Why does generate_name(0) return False? I would expect an empty string '', or maybe None.

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Rather than check if full_syl == '': (not a great name, by the way; why not just name?) during the loop, I would build the whole name in lowercase then use str.title: return full_syl.title(). This removes both .upper and .lower from the forloop, simplifying the code.

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Why pick every letter randomly? In this part:

decision = random.choice(('consonant', 'vowel'))

if full_syl[-1:].lower() in vowels:
    decision = 'consonant'
if full_syl[-1:].lower() in consonants:
    decision = 'vowel'

the first value of decision is ignored for every letter but the first. If you want strict alternation, you only need to randomly pick the type of the first letter. You could even use itertools.cycle to switch back and forth between vowels and consonants for each pick.

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Rather than keep adding letters to a string, I would probably build a list or iterator of letters then str.join them. Otherwise you create many unnecessary string objects for the partial names, which are immediately discarded.