Iphone or Mac address book adding last name by itself! Help!

[MacGiver]

Hi all,
I sync my iphone contacts with my MBP address book (AB). The issue i often have is that during the sync it is adding the person last name by itself which is something i do not want...
For instance...let's say i have a friend called John Doe and his email is john.doe@gmail.com. I initially added him as John in my contacts without his last name and of course added his email info...after several sync i have noticed that John became John Doe in both my MBP AB and iPhone contacts.
I have the impression that if you just add the first name of a contact but if this contact has his last name in his email the iPhone or AB will automatically add the last name to the contact...that is very annoying.

Anyone faced that? Any idea how to avoid that?
Thanks
X

 

[MacGiver]

Would anyone have a suggestion about my issue above?
Thanks
X

 

[UngratefulNinja]

I posted about that issue several months ago and never got a response either It's really annoying, especially with people I text/call regularly when their name changes from email I haven't found a solution yet though.

 

[MacGiver]

I posted about that issue several months ago and never got a response either It's really annoying, especially with people I text/call regularly when their name changes from email I haven't found a solution yet though.

Thanks for replying...even if it did not help i am glad to see i am not the only one...

Anyone else had that issue? Any fix found?
Thanks
X

 

[MacGiver]

Hi all,
I sync my iphone contacts with my MBP address book (AB). The issue i often have is that during the sync it is adding the person last name by itself which is something i do not want...
For instance...let's say i have a friend called John Doe and his email is john.doe@gmail.com. I initially added him as John in my contacts without his last name and of course added his email info...after several sync i have noticed that John became John Doe in both my MBP adress book and iPhone contacts.
I have the impression that if you just add the first name of a contact but if this contact has his last name in his email the iPhone or adress book will automatically add the last name to the contact...that is very annoying.

Anyone faced that? Any idea how to avoid that?
Thanks
X

Still no one to help on this one?

 

[zvt]

Hi there,

sorry, don't have an answer, but I have the same problem and I'm interested in a solution as well...

Thanks

 

[MacGiver]

Still no one has a clue about that problem?
Helpppppppp!!! So annoying....

 

[knowledgeseeker]

Spurious surnames here, too

I have been plagued by the addition of last names too; but in my case it takes the form of turning "Joe office" (meaning Joe's office number, with both words entered into the first-name field so that it sorts under "Joe") into "Joe office office." I've been using 2 Macs and an iPhone, sync'd via MobileMe.

 

[ilios]

Switched and duplicated contacts

The last couple of synchs I've had a similar issue, I thought it was to do with the synching but after reading this post I think it's related to your issue.

I get, duplicated contacts, but some of them are not just simply duplicated, the duplicate appears with surname switched to first name...

One thing that I'm not understanding though about the whole contacts synching is if there's a way to tell iTunes what I want to synch towards what - does anyone know if it is possible to decide synch direction and how to handle conflicts?

Sorry I didn't answer, but just added another behavior of the issue

 

[eastercat]

If you don't like Apple's added last names, then add your own. See if putting in a blank space in the last name field avoids the problem--if you're so antagonistic towards the surname.

 

[MacGiver]

Anyone still have issue and found a solution?
Summary: i create a contact name with only a first name on my iPhone or Mac address book...they sync. So far so good.
So let's say i create "John". I send a mail to John and suddently after my contact is John + his last name...how does it happen? In some case the email address of the person does not even contain his last name.
I suspect that it is fetching the first name + last name of the person i am sending the mail to, and automatically upadte my address book. For instance you can have someone who has set up is mail like XXXXX@gmail.com but set up his email diplay name as John Doe...and i guess this is what my address book is fecthing!
How can I prevent this from happening?

 

[sandro21]

Hey,Mac Giver, I am sorry to hear about it, it is really annoying.
Maybe you could try to research this on Google answer, it will be a helpful method.

 

[MacGiver]

Hey,Mac Giver, I am sorry to hear about it, it is really annoying.
Maybe you could try to research this on Google answer, it will be a helpful method.

You are right it is annoying...but trust me I googled this many times and found no answers. Called Apple, they are clueless...
Why do you contribute to this thread? Do you ahve the issue or do you have a suggestion other than "try to google it"...

 

[Wingsy]

I know this thread is nearly an antique, but there is another quirk about last names that I've found. In my mail I do not have my last name included, but my last name gets added to my contact entry when someone sends me an email that has both my first & last names in the address. And from then on, whenever I send an email my last name gets included. Have to go into contacts and remove it (again, and again, and again). Very annoying.

 

[BamBam88]

Try change the Sort-by in Pref and adding a single space for the last name

I have found this 'feature' extremely painful when trying to organise my address books on my MacBook and iPhone.

However the only way I can get this to work for my requirements is to change how the address book 'sorts by' in preferences. Then where the individuals detail would be, i put 'joe' in the 'first' name box and then in the 'last' name box I simply just put a 'space' in there, (one press of the spacebar, no '-' / '_' / '~' or anything else)
This does not fix the problem, however it makes it more bearable to live with for me.

Keep me posted if you find anything out.

 

[bradkvn]

I'm having the same issue....Let us know if anyone found the solution for this.

 

[jsmakr]

Same problem here too. Really annoying

 

[netbeans]

Annoying issue still exist.

Hmmmm... 1st post was @ 2009, and issue still exist today. Looks like not in a priority list of issues to solve.

I'm wondering if there is a way to disbale the lastname field in the addressbook all together.

 

[jsmakr]

Hmmmm... 1st post was @ 2009, and issue still exist today. Looks like not in a priority list of issues to solve.

I'm wondering if there is a way to disbale the lastname field in the addressbook all together.

Not really a solution for me because I do use the last name field for some contacts, but for close friends I never do and it keeps re-adding last names after I...
1) receive an email from them (only Gmail)
2) perform a sync

 

[hector]

I have been plagued by the addition of last names too; but in my case it takes the form of turning "Joe office" (meaning Joe's office number, with both words entered into the first-name field so that it sorts under "Joe") into "Joe office office." I've been using 2 Macs and an iPhone, sync'd via MobileMe.

Just thought I'd chime in to say that I have been having this exact issue for ages and it's driving me nuts. I thought the cloud might fix it but no...

 

[rayjay86]

You guys aren't the only ones. Mum & Dad in my address book syncs to become Mum & Dad Dad and then I can't find them.

It also changes adds it's own contact. Mum [her cell] shows up at Jane Doe and Mum, two separate contacts, exact same info in both....I used to have her listed as her name a long time ago and for maybe a day.

This is really annoying and Im surprised no one has fixed it or found a workaround. I'll keep trying

 

[chu121su12]

use nbsp (option + space) as the last name

 

[verwon]

I had this happening from my Mac, so I turned off the option to sync contacts from it, no more changes to the names on my 4S, or iPad.

 

[greekappi]

I am having this same stupid issue with last names popping up. What exactly does adding a space do? Will it register that space as a character and not override it with the email contact name? I mean the sender's name that they choose to go along with their email address, of course.

 

[WillieDynamite]

& The Source Of The Problem Is...

So I'm new to Mac & everybody raved about how perfect it is...GUESS AGAIN!

I've found that the problem stems from sending an email from the native Mac Email Client. If you use Outlook for email, this problem goes away. It's amazing to me that the "Geniuses" over at Apple have yet to address (No Pun) yet alone fix this problem.

Don't get me started on the Battery Issues!