Have you ever been in a situation where you lost a person’s name but still have his/her phone number? Yes, we didn’t shift words. You have the cell number but don’t have the name! If you faced or are facing this situation, we have got a few solutions for you. In today’s world, nearly everything is connected to the internet. So, it acts as a directory where you can search for peoples’ names using their mobile phone numbers. Now, let’s see some of the available options in 2025.
Search engines
The very basic search technique anyone would follow to find anything is using a search engine. Similar to what you did to find this article, you can do the same to find peoples’ names. Therefore, just do a reverse phone number search on Google or any other search engine and check the results.
Sometimes people use their cell numbers to register in something that leaves their numbers visible. Also, people might write their contact details in a comment or a post on a blog for any reason. Another option is that this number is for an organization or a service provider whose number is registered in a directory. In such cases, search engines will be able to find the person you’re looking for using their mobile number.
However, the search engines won’t give you a result every time you do a reverse phone number search. This is because the number should be somewhere on the internet for the search engine to find it. So, if the person you’re searching for never wrote his number anywhere on the internet, unfortunately, you won’t find it.
Another note here is to use Google as the first option as it’s the most powerful search engine today. If you can’t find a useful result, then, go for other search engines on the next step. That includes Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo.
Social media
Alternatively, you can use social media as a second option after search engines. Needless to say, Facebook is the number one social media platform worldwide. Facebook allows searching for people using their numbers. However, there’s a privacy setting on Facebook that prevents this option people might use. So, keep in mind that it won’t always work.
On the other side, searching on Facebook might give results in a different way as you can discover the person in question writing his number in a comment on any post. Hence, use the Facebook search bar to write the phone number anyway and see how it goes.
Another useful trick that may work well for you, it’s Snapchat. So, if the person you’re trying to identify has a Snapchat account, then, add it to your contact list. Next, try to synchronize your contacts with the app, So, Snapchat can tell you if that person has an account that’s linked to that exact mobile number. Once you discover that profile, look for details that may reveal the name of the real owner behind it.
Further, use other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok to do the same thing. If you can’t find the name, then, go to the next option.
Although Whatsapp is considered a social media platform, it has a different nature than the others. Whatsapp connects people using their mobile numbers. Also, there’s no way you chat with anyone on WhatsApp without viewing their number.
Try saving the number you have to your contacts using any name. Open the Whatsapp application and check for the name you saved. If it’s linked to an account on WhatsApp, it will appear on the app where you can text him.
Now, send any message to this number to start a chat and then delete the contact from your phone. When you check again on Whatsapp, you’ll see the name this person gave to himself. If not, then probably the person set his privacy settings to show his name to his contact list only.
Truecaller
Truecaller is a global phone directory where you can find out a person’s name from a phone number for free. The best thing about Truecaller is that it operates in many countries. Further, you don’t only get the name of the person but also other details such as the email, city, and country.
Truecaller has a mobile application that does the same thing but offers an additional service for those who install it on their mobile phones. If a number that isn’t in your contacts list calls you, Truecaller will automatically search for this number and give you the name while it’s calling.
Furthermore, people create accounts on Truecaller and write their username which appears when other people search for their numbers. In return, registered accounts can report other numbers as spam. When many people report the same number, it will appear when searching for this number that it is spam.
Other tools
After you try all the previous methods and can’t find any result, then, the last option for you is to try one of these tools. Mostly, reverse phone tools are free. However, they have some limitations on the indexed numbers and countries.
Whitepages
The Whitepages tool works the same way search engines work for finding someone’s name from the phone number. Moreover, it has an application that you can use on your mobile phone for easier search.
That being said, Whitepages has some limitations. In reality it works in the USA only and it’s not totally free of charge. You can start with a free membership to look for a few numbers per month but if you want more searches, you have to upgrade your membership.
AnyWho
Another alternative to Whitepages is Anywho which works exactly the same way as Whitepages. Furthermore, the same restrictions apply as it works in the USA only. However, the reason why we’re giving you more than one option is that the number you’re looking for might be indexed on a website and not on the other.
Mobile apps
This is another option you can try. There are dozens of applications that offer reverse phone number lookups. But not all of them provide what everyone expects such as freshness of the data and accuracy. So, I’ll leave these options for you as you just have to search for it directly on the App Store or the Android one. However, remember that most of the options we talk about are available in the USA only for registered numbers.
Although the common thing is that you want the number of someone you know by name, the opposite can happen in rare cases. Maybe someone is calling many times with no answer from his side or someone is trying to spam. Whatever the case is, you now have the tools to find someone’s name using a phone number. You can use Search engines, social media, WhatsApp, Truecaller, and finally reverse lookup tools.
