iMessage shows wrong name

I first noticed this problem in late November 2019.

In my main list of messages, the bold name displayed above one of my friend's iMessages is his wife's name. The identifying photo/image next to the name correctly has his initials but the bold name displayed is that of his wife. When I open the message, at the top of the screen it has the identifying photo/image with his initials, but his wife's name underneath it.

When his iMessage appears on my phone's Lock screen, it has the correct name on it.

I do not even have his wife's contact details stored on my phone, although I did at some point in the past - probably on an older iPhone.

I updated from iOS 13.2 (17B84) to iOS 13.3 (17C54) today (11 Dec 2019), but the problem persists.

iPhone X.

Hello dl_79,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It's my understanding that messages received from a recently updated contact appear with the old contact information. You've done a great job trying to get this resolved. I'm happy to help.

If you haven't already, I recommend using the steps below to deleting previous conversations from the old contact and test the issue again:

" When you delete a message or conversation, you can't get it back. So make sure that you save important information from your messages.

To delete a message:

1. In a message conversation, touch and hold the message bubble that you want to delete, then tap More.
2. Tap , then tap Delete Message. If you want to delete all messages in the thread, tap Delete All in the upper-left corner. Then tap Delete Conversation.

To delete a single conversation, swipe left over the conversation that you want to delete, tap Delete, then tap Delete again to confirm. To delete more than one conversation, open Messages and tap Edit in the upper-left corner. Then tap the circle next to the conversations and tap Delete in the bottom-right corner.

To keep your messages for a certain amount of time, go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. Then select how long you want to keep your messages."

Use Messages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Let us know the results. Please include any other troubleshooting steps you may have tried.

Have a nice day!

it could be that they are sharing their contact. The ability to do that was added in iOS 13.2

I think I had them as a linked contact years ago and subsequently removed the link because iMessages I sent to him appeared on her phone. When that didn't solve the problem, I deleted her contact details from my phone entirely.

I just found that when I examined my contact and scrolled all the way to the bottom of his details, there was a "LINKED CONTACTS" section showing two iCloud entries - one with his name and one with his wife's name. I edited and unlinked the incorrect contact for his wife's name.

Then I found that his wife's name had reappeared in my Contacts list, and frustratingly his wife's initials had now replaced his initials in the photo/image for his iMessages!

I deleted his wife from my Contacts list and iMessage sanity has once again been restored.