diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonService.java b/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonService.java
index 23d38baa..c9710c7e 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonService.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonService.java
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 package org.raddatz.familienarchiv.person;
 
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Comparator;
+import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Locale;
 import java.util.Optional;
+import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.UUID;
 
 import org.springframework.lang.Nullable;
@@ -24,9 +28,11 @@ import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;
 import org.springframework.web.server.ResponseStatusException;
 
 import lombok.RequiredArgsConstructor;
+import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 
 @Service
 @RequiredArgsConstructor
+@Slf4j
 public class PersonService {
 
     private final PersonRepository personRepository;
@@ -103,6 +109,22 @@ public class PersonService {
         return personRepository.searchByName(fragment);
     }
 
+    // Name-match tokenizer (issue #763): lowercase, split on whitespace/hyphen/apostrophe,
+    // drop empties. Applied symmetrically to the query and to every candidate name component so
+    // that "Anna-Maria" and "Anna Maria" tokenize alike. Order-preserving for deterministic tests.
+    static Set<String> tokenize(String raw) {
+        if (raw == null || raw.isBlank()) {
+            return Set.of();
+        }
+        LinkedHashSet<String> tokens = new LinkedHashSet<>();
+        for (String part : raw.toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT).split("[\\s\\-']+")) {
+            if (!part.isEmpty()) {
+                tokens.add(part);
+            }
+        }
+        return tokens;
+    }
+
     public List<Person> findAllFamilyMembers() {
         return personRepository.findByFamilyMemberTrueOrderByLastNameAscFirstNameAsc();
     }
diff --git a/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonServiceTest.java b/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonServiceTest.java
index 865ae9ad..248504c5 100644
--- a/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonServiceTest.java
+++ b/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/person/PersonServiceTest.java
@@ -909,4 +909,36 @@ class PersonServiceTest {
         assertThat(result).containsExactly(walter);
         verify(personRepository).searchByName("Walter");
     }
+
+    // ─── tokenize (name-match contract) ───────────────────────────────────────
+
+    @Test
+    void tokenize_hyphenatedName_splitsOnHyphen() {
+        assertThat(PersonService.tokenize("Anna-Maria")).containsExactly("anna", "maria");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void tokenize_apostropheName_splitsOnApostrophe() {
+        assertThat(PersonService.tokenize("D'Angelo")).containsExactly("d", "angelo");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void tokenize_umlautName_lowercasesToSingleToken() {
+        assertThat(PersonService.tokenize("Müller")).containsExactly("müller");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void tokenize_doubleSpace_dropsEmptyTokens() {
+        assertThat(PersonService.tokenize("Clara  Cram")).containsExactly("clara", "cram");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void tokenize_allWhitespace_returnsEmpty() {
+        assertThat(PersonService.tokenize("   ")).isEmpty();
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void tokenize_null_returnsEmpty() {
+        assertThat(PersonService.tokenize(null)).isEmpty();
+    }
 }