I use MySQL Aurora to store 1 million customer names. I am looking for efficient ways to implement real-time search for patient names.

For example:

• John Su
• Wong Li David
• Kim Go Lan
• En Smith
• Vasco da Gama

Many customer names can be 2-letter long – sometimes even 1 alphabet. I want the search to look for any word of the name, and be efficient. I want to perform the search with every keystroke as the user searches for names.

I prefer to keep the solution to application + MySQL/Aurora (i.e. not spin up other tools like Elasticsearch).

Any recommendations or best practices?

I have explored Full-text search indexes – however, these don’t do so well with 1 or 2 alphabet names.