Gmail: Incorrect Display Name

There are several reasons why names may not be displaying correctly in Gmail. 

Names may appear in Gmail as "[Internet ID] University of Minnesota" or "Unknown" rather than the usual "[First Name] [Last Name]".

Some characters may also load incorrectly or not load at all. 

In this article: 

Common Causes of Name Display Issues

Note: Any changes applied to the name settings below can take up to 24 hours to go into full effect. 

If your name continues to display incorrectly after 24 hours, please contact the Technology Help Desk. 

Directory Suppression

Directory suppression commonly impacts the way names appear. Students can suppress all of their information from the public view of the University's (and by extension, Google's) Directory.

To make your email address appear correctly in Google, you will need to disable directory suppression. Refer to Make your information private under the article Student Records Privacy and Access for details about each level of suppression.

See Accounts: Understand User Information Suppression Settings and Impact for more information about how suppressing your personal information may impact your experience with technology. 

Unique Characters

Non-alphabetic characters other than the hyphen (-) may not display correctly or at all. This includes many accented characters. 

MyU Preferred Name Settings

The name entered as your Preferred Name in MyU will be pulled into your UMN Google Workspace account. 

See How to set a preferred name under the article Preferred name for details about how to update your preferred name in MyU and other places where your preferred name will display. 

Google Inbox Settings

Names may be incorrect in your inbox settings.

To check and make changes to your Send Mail As settings:

  1. Go to mail.umn.edu. 
  2. Select the Settings gear icon Google, setting gear icon. .
  3. Select See all settings. 
    Gmail, Settings menu, See all settings highlighted.
  4. Select the Accounts tab.
    Gmail, Settings Menu opened to the General Tab. Accounts tab highlighted.
  5. Check under Send mail as: to confirm your name is entered correctly.
  6. If it is not entered correctly, click edit info to make changes. 
    Gmail, Settings Menu, Accounts tab. An example page is shown displaying the Send mail as: information for a user. Their FULLNAME displays next to their email address, ID@umn.edu. Edit Info is highlighted.
  7. Under Name, select the text entry field and enter your name as you would like it to be displayed. 
    Edit Info window displaying the user's name and email address. For name, the options are FULLNAME (your name in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Mail accounts) and a text entry field. The text entry field is highlighted. The Save Changes button is also highlighted.
  8. Click Save Changes to apply any updates to your name display settings. 

Google About Me Settings

Information may also need to be updated in aboutme.google.com for changes to appear in Google. 

To check and make changes to your Google About Me name settings:

  1. Go to aboutme.google.com.
  2. In the Basic info box, click on the row where your name appears.
    Google, About Me page. The Basic info box is open to display name, profile picture, and gender information. The name row is highlighted.
  3. Click the pencil icon to make changes to your name. 
    Google About Me, Name tab open to display the Name and Nickname. Pencil icon highlighted on the Name row.
  4. Enter your name the way you wish to see it displayed. 
    Google About Me, Name editing screen. There are two fields to enter a first name and last name.
  5. Select Save to save your changes. 

Additional Resources

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