Gmail – Showing recipient name in the “Sent Email” label/folder in Gmail

It could be that your friend does not have her email account setup with the name field as I had a similar problem when working with an Organization that did not fill out their information within their email client.

Check the original (selecting the drop down menu where you can reply to a message or report) and see what comes up in the From: field. The RFC has conventions for sending the From header and her email client may not be executing properly.

The RFC calls it a mailbox

Normally, a mailbox is comprised of two parts: (1) an optional display name that indicates the name of the recipient (which could be a person or a system) that could be displayed to the user of a mail application, and (2) an addr-spec address enclosed in angle brackets ("<" and ">").

Of course all of this is on the assumption that she is not using Gmail

Check the user card that shows up when hovering over the email address, select the "More" drop down and go to "Contact Details" if the contact is a duplicate of the one you have saved, delete it.

Currently still no, and probably never. The name that is displayed when you receive an email is the name embedded into that emails from:header. BUT there are two workarounds that I can think of, hopefully one will help you!

Use Filters

One workaround solution is to filter the email address and apply a label to it. This can help if their name is causing any confusion (eg. I have 4 people called Mike)

The Pros of using this is that it will sync across all your computers and devices.

Use a Script

There is a script called DisplayName gmail that takes the contacts name (the one you have set in your contacts list) and displays that instead of their from: name.

You will need to install tampermonkey (Chrome) or greasemonkey (Firefox) and then you can install the script DisplayName gmail (tested and working with chrome).

The cons of using a script is that its not going to work across multiple computers - you would need to install the script on each computer you use. And this also work on your phone.