Hi caddymob
In R you can use SQL directly on the annotation databases to do this. Using your gene aliases as examples:

# load the annotation database
library(org.Hs.eg.db)
# set up your query genes
queryGeneNames <- c('WHRN', 'SANS')

# use sql to get alias table and gene_info table (contains the symbols)
# first open the database connection
dbCon <- org.Hs.eg_dbconn()
# write your SQL query
sqlQuery <- 'SELECT * FROM alias, gene_info WHERE alias._id == gene_info._id;'
# execute the query on the database
aliasSymbol <- dbGetQuery(dbCon, sqlQuery)
# subset to get your results
result <- aliasSymbol[which(aliasSymbol[,2] == queryGeneNames),5]
result
[1] "DFNB31" "USH1G"

See the AnnotationDBI docs for more information.
Best
d

Actually - after thinking the flat file might be the only solution in response to Larry, I was poking around genenames.org and found a way to do this.. When you use the cgi download page, you get a link. Rather than saving this as a text file, I feed this right into R:

hgnc <- read.delim(url("http://www.genenames.org/cgi-bin/hgnc_downloads.cgi?title=HGNC+output+data&hgnc_dbtag=on&col=gd_app_sym&col=gd_aliases&status=Approved&status=Entry+Withdrawn&status_opt=2&where=&order_by=gd_app_sym_sort&format=text&limit=&submit=submit&.cgifields=&.cgifields=chr&.cgifields=status&.cgifields=hgnc_dbtag"))

hgnc[grep("WHRN",hgnc$Synonyms),]

     Approved.Symbol           Synonyms
6950          DFNB31 CIP98, WHRN, USH2D

Ta da!

With just 8 and in terms of getting the result out the door, I would query manually at NCBI under the HomoloGene site. You'll have to perform each search individually, but aliases are accepted most of the time. If you're unsure of aliases being an acceptable query, then search EntrezGene with the human alias and limit the search to human genes.

WHRN as query at HomoloGene gives:

DFNB31, H.sapiens[?] DFNB31, P.troglodytes[?] DFNB31, C.lupus[?] Whrn, M.musculus[?] Dfnb31, R.norvegicus[?] LOC100334777, D.rerio

It is interesting that the mouse gene symbol remains as the human alias equivalent.

Here is the mapping relationship between Gene Symbol to all his alias name, Download it

https://yunpan.cn/ckkc5J3JBv2ua passwd: 7010