... assume that the names in the array are variations on each other and pick the longest one as the best guess. Or select an alternate lookup or some other such approach.

The first thing I thought of here was Google's approach, where they tell you:

In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 35 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

That way no data is lost, it is all available to the user, but the interface stays pretty and relatively concise.

LAI