Senders' Names Now Reversed in Mail Inbox (iOS 14.2)

Since upgrading to iOS 14.2 the names of senders in my Inbox of Apple's Mail app are reversed. For example, emails that used to show as coming from "The New York Times" now show as coming from "York Times The New York." Or instead of "Shell Card" it now shows as "Card Shell." It seems iOS used to recognize business names and show them as such. It looks like it now treats business names the same way it always displayed individual names (Last Name, First Name). I know this doesn't affect functionality, but it sure is aggravating.


Anyone else experiencing this and is there a solution?

iPhone 11 Pro

Posted on Nov 11, 2020 11:02 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 16, 2020 9:01 AM

The change of contacts display does impact how my email senders are named. I had the goofy issue with 14.2. Many other threads on this issue, several noting the problem only in inbox and not other folders so clearly a bug not intended. I don’t know why contact display order impacts mail senders, including many not in my contacts (likely the case fir the vast majority of iPhone users), but it clearly does. However, if I change sort order in contacts, as with others, I also have the first, last display in contact as well as mail. So mail senders read normally like they used to but contacts is harder to read because first name is displayed first which, to me, is visually confusing and makes it harder to find what I’m looking for.


I will note that after changing the display order to first, last and seeing the mailbox senders fixed, I tried changing sort order in contacts back to last, first and found that, while contacts reverted to my long-standing and preferred display of last, first, the mail sender display did NOT change back to the weird last, first order that took over with 14.2. This is good. I quit the mail app and relaunched and found it has retained the corrected sort order. I have changed it back and forth several times in preferences and, since changing it back the very first time, changing contact display preference has ceased to effect how mail senders are displayed. No matter what I set display order to, only contacts change (as one would expect), but not mail sender display, which stays “normal”, for lack of a better term.


Don’t know how long it will last (hopefully permanent), but for the moment I have the display order I want in mail and the one I want in contacts and the preference to change sort order is now only changing the display in contacts with mail unchanged since the first change to correct it. Clearly and unequivocally a bug.

199 replies

Dec 11, 2020 3:41 AM in response to kayo8

I agree. I tried the solution but prefer my contacts to display last name first. Hopefully Apple will push out an option to list the email headings as before. At first I thought I was getting a little dyslexic when I viewed my email late one night. Then to prove my sanity, after an hour of pressing different options in mail I logged into gmail directly and noticed the subject line viewed correctly. That led me to coming to the forum and searching the issue.

Nov 14, 2020 7:40 AM in response to dpdapper1

iOS 14.2 reversed the names of senders in my Inbox of Apple's Mail app

I have the same problem with the new 14.2 on my phone and ipadpro. More frustrating on the iPhone now that I constantly have to rotate phone to see the “From” company’s complete or first name. It has made the titles of emails start withe end of the subject line appear as the first words on the line. Using the SE iPhone makes it more aggravating with a smaller screen. All I see are the last 2 words in a subject that has 4 or more words.


Anyone find a workable solution?

Nov 16, 2020 8:23 AM in response to LD150

Peter, as we discussed above, I think kayo8 is correct. I marked my question “solved” because the solution did correct the problem in Mail. But it created another problem in Contacts—i.e., contacts now display First Name, Last Name, even if the sort order is Last Name, First Name. One should be able to have Contacts display Last Name, First Name without affecting how emails are displayed. I think this is kayo8’s (and my) frustration. Obviously, this is Apple’s problem, not yours, and I appreciate your help.

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Senders' Names Now Reversed in Mail Inbox (iOS 14.2)

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