diff --git a/server/objects/entities/Author.js b/server/objects/entities/Author.js
index 56f9233d..463c9cac 100644
--- a/server/objects/entities/Author.js
+++ b/server/objects/entities/Author.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 const Logger = require('../../Logger')
 const { getId } = require('../../utils/index')
+const { checkNamesAreEqual } = require('../../utils/parsers/parseNameString')
 
 class Author {
   constructor(author) {
@@ -86,7 +87,7 @@ class Author {
       Logger.error(`[Author] Author name is null (${this.id})`)
       return false
     }
-    return this.name.toLowerCase() == name.toLowerCase().trim()
+    return checkNamesAreEqual(this.name, name)
   }
 }
 module.exports = Author
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/server/utils/parsers/parseNameString.js b/server/utils/parsers/parseNameString.js
index 068470a1..d2d80d2d 100644
--- a/server/utils/parsers/parseNameString.js
+++ b/server/utils/parsers/parseNameString.js
@@ -91,4 +91,13 @@ module.exports.parse = (nameString) => {
     nameLF: lastFirst, // String of comma separated last, first
     names: namesArray // Array of first last
   }
+}
+
+module.exports.checkNamesAreEqual = (name1, name2) => {
+  if (!name1 || !name2) return false
+
+  // e.g. John H. Smith will be equal to John H Smith
+  name1 = String(name1).toLowerCase().trim().replace(/\./g, '')
+  name2 = String(name2).toLowerCase().trim().replace(/\./g, '')
+  return name1 === name2
 }
\ No newline at end of file