Mail app inbox mail list problem in iPadOS 14.2

I also noticed iPadOS 14.2 and macOS Catalina displaying the sender differently, except I preferred the iPadOS 14.2 (and iOS 14.2) display. It fit my use case better; it may fit your worse.

iPadOS/iOS 14.2 does a better job than macOS Catalina of detecting and displaying a name sent inside the email. (You can check for a name inside the email on macOS Mail through use of View > Message > Raw Source; scroll down to the "From:" line.)

I am unaware of any such setting on any of the platforms. If I find one, I will probably set it so macOS treats names in the mail header exactly as iOS and iPadOS 14.2 have started doing. It respects the name that the sender of the mail wishes used, rather than the name the recipient thinks of. As I said, it fits my use case better and may not fit your use case.

I see a similar problem on our 9.7 iPad Pro and iPad 11 Pro email mail inbox lists with iPadOS 14.2 compared to iOS 14.2 on our iPhone 11 Pro Maxs and now the iPhone 12 Pro Maxs. An email from “National Geographic” on the iPhones is from “Geographic National” on the iPads.

This started with 14.2. Oh well, they squish bugs in the old version and new bugs show up in the kitchen over night.

Problem solved! I called AppleCare and was transferred to a senior support tech. He had me go to Settings, Contacts and change the Sort Order and Display Order to First, Last from Last, First. He said the display from name is related to the Contact List setting. I had not realized this, the iPads are WiFi-only unlike the iPhones.

You learn something every day.

I have this issue on iPhone SE with iOS 14.2. I have not updated my iPad and the sender displays correctly. If there is a new preference somewhere I can’t find it.

I spoke to a senior support AppleCare person. He said the name order in the Contacts settings affects the displayed "From" in bold type in the Inbox in the Apple Mail app.