If you are on a hunt to match a name to a telephone number, consider a reverse phone lookup. Many home phone numbers are public records--unless the person has requested a private number. There are several free, online phone directories to help you look up a name associated with a phone number. If the phone number turns out to be a cell phone number, then you may have to pay a fee, because cell phone users register their numbers with cell phone companies,they are not public records.
Step 1
Go to the Switchboard.com home page by typing the address in the search box of your search engine. Press return. You will be transferred to Switchboard.com.
Step 2
Click on the second tab, a blue tab labeled "Find a Person." You will see two search boxes. Fill out the information in the second search box, which is labeled "Reverse Phone." Type in the phone number, including the area code, into the empty, white box. You do not need to put parentheses around the area code or hypens between the number sets. However, doing so will not affect the search.
Step 3
Click the gray "Search" button. Switchboard.com will transfer you to a new page with the name and address of the person whose name is registered with the phone number. If the number is unlisted or a cell phone number, you will see the message: "(XXX) XXX-XXX is Unpublished or Unavailable."
Things You'll Need
Computer
Internet connection