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When you collect a customer’s name — from a signup form, a checkout, or a CSV import — the data is rarely clean. People type “john,” “JOHN,” or “john smith” with extra spaces. Maestra automatically standardizes names so your emails and SMS don’t go out looking sloppy.

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What characters are allowed

By default, name fields accept:
  • Letters (A–Z, a–z)
  • Apostrophes (') — for names like O’Brien
  • Hyphens (-) — for names like Mary-Jane
  • Spaces
Each field has a 100-character limit. If a value contains characters outside this set (numbers, emojis, symbols), the field stays empty rather than saving bad data.
Need to support accented characters (José, Zoë, Müller) or non-Latin alphabets? Reach out to support to enable extended character sets for your project.

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Two ways to send a name

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Option 1 — Send the parts separately

Pass FirstName and LastName as individual fields. Maestra stores exactly what you send, with no parsing. 
{
  "firstName": "Sarah",
  "lastName": "Thompson"
}
Use this when your form already splits the name into separate inputs. It’s the most reliable option.

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Option 2 — Send a single full-name string

Pass the whole name in one FullName field. Maestra splits it into first and last automatically by checking the first token against its name dictionary. 
{
  "fullName": "Sarah Thompson"
}
Use this when your source system only stores one combined name field.

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Automatic capitalization

Whatever case you send, Maestra normalizes it on import:
You sendStored as
michaelMichael
MICHAELMichael
mary-janeMary-Jane
o'brienO'Brien
The first letter of each name (and each part after a hyphen) is uppercased; the rest is left alone. This way, Hi {{ first_name }} always renders cleanly in your templates.

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Standard vs. non-standard names

Maestra keeps a dictionary of common names. When a name matches the dictionary, it’s marked as standard. Names that don’t match (nicknames, unusual spellings, typos, or junk like “asdf”) are marked non-standard and stored as-is. This matters when you pick a personalization variable in a template:
  • Recipient.FirstName — uses whatever is on file, standard or not. Best for maximum reach.
  • Recipient.OnlyStandardFirstName — only fills in if the name is recognized. Best when you’d rather show a generic greeting than risk sending “Hi xxxxx” to subscribers with junk data.
For welcome flows where personalization quality matters more than coverage, use OnlyStandardFirstName with a fallback like “Hi there” so unrecognized names don’t break your greeting.

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Quick checklist

  • Decide whether to send name parts separately or as one string.
  • Strip numbers and special characters at the source if possible.
  • In templates, choose FirstName for reach or OnlyStandardFirstName for quality.
  • Always set a fallback value on personalization tags.