A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for identifying a part name within a data record. A maintenance expression is initially identified within a data record and a candidate part name string is then identified by identifying a head noun within a window that is positioned within the data record based upon the expression. In addition to identifying the head noun, a modifier may also be identified adjacent to or near any occurrence of the head noun in the course of identifying the candidate part name string. The candidate part name string may then be separately matched to respective ones of a plurality of standard names with each of a plurality of string matching techniques. The resulting potential matches are then analyzed to determine a best match.