It is much better and easier to use areas.
In your model:
scope :uniquely_named, group(:name)
In your controller:
autocomplete :user, :name, :scopes => [:uniquely_named]
This solution makes it easy to apply more complex filtering:
Model:
scope :uniquely_named, group(:name) scope :online, where(:online => true)
controller:
autocomplete :user, :name, :scopes => [:uniquely_named, :online]
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