How do I capitalise names in a CSV?

Paste or upload it here and press Clean first names. Names in all capitals or all lowercase are capitalised; mixed-case names are left alone.

How do I remove Mr, Mrs and Dr from names?

They're removed automatically when a name follows them, so Dr. Kim becomes Kim. A cell that is only a title gets the fallback.

Can it split a full name into first and last?

It keeps the first word if you untick two-word names. For a proper split with suffixes and surname particles, use split full name.

Does it work for non-English names?

Yes for letters in any script: accents and non-Latin names are kept. The placeholder and company word lists are English.

No. Cleaning happens in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose to check the addresses afterwards.

First name cleaner: fix ALL CAPS, blanks and junk before a mail merge

In short: Fixes JANE and jane to Jane, strips Dr., emoji and (she/her), and replaces blanks, initials, placeholders like test or n/a and company names with a fallback such as "there", or a name read from the email address. Limit: It can't tell whether a name is real or spelled the way the person spells it; it fixes format, not facts.

To clean first names for a mail merge, paste the list or upload the CSV with a first name column, choose a fallback such as "there", and press Clean. ALL CAPS and lowercase names are capitalised, titles, emoji and pronouns are removed, and blanks, initials, placeholders and company names get the fallback or a name read from the address.

Price: this tool is free. Checking a whole email list is from $9/mo, and the first 100 checks are free with Google, no card. See pricing

Fallback when there's no usable name

"Hi there," reads better than "Hi ,". Leave it empty for a blank cell.

Read a name from the address when the cell is unusable (ana.silva@ gives Ana)Keep two-word first names (Mary Anne); untick to keep only the first word

Names one per line, or a CSV with a first name column (an email column helps)

Upload a CSV or TXT fileRuns in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

SimpleAPI

Sample result

8 first names cleaned: 5 fixed, 1 read from the address, 2 given the fallback "there".

First names: 8 cleaned
Fixed: 5
From email: 1

What this means for you

No more "Hi JOHN," or "Hi ,": map first_name_clean to your merge field.

Next step:Verify the cleaned list

ALL CAPS and lowercase fixed
Titles, emoji and pronouns removed
Blanks and junk get a fallback
Name read from the address

Personalisation
Names
CSV

By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated November 2, 2026 · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us

How do I check the addresses before the merge goes out?

Download the cleaned CSV here; every original column is kept.
Upload it at /verify. Every address gets a live mailbox check, and valid, risky and invalid download as separate files. The first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card.
Send to the valid file, with first_name_clean in the greeting.

Check the addresses

How do I clean first names before a mail merge?

Set the fallback for rows with no usable name: "there" gives "Hi there,".
Leave "read a name from the address" on to turn ana.silva@ into Ana when the name cell is empty or junk.
Paste names or upload the CSV and press Clean first names; the first name column is found by its header.
Check the changed rows, then download the CSV with first_name_clean, first_name_status and first_name_note added, and map first_name_clean to your merge field.

Example

You enter: 8 rows with a first_name column: ANA, leo, Dr. Kim, Sam 🚀 (he/him), Adatum Inc at info@, a blank name at mia.chen@, R. and jean-luc, with the fallback "there".
You get: Ana, Leo, Kim, Sam and Jean-Luc fixed; Mia read from the address; Adatum Inc (a company name) and R. (an initial) get "there". Each row gets first_name_clean, first_name_status and first_name_note.
Limits: Runs in your browser with no row cap; an uploaded file can be up to 25 MB.

How do I fix ALL CAPS names in Excel?

=PROPER(B2) turns JANE into Jane, and works in Google Sheets too. It also turns McDonald into Mcdonald and DeShawn into Deshawn, because it lowercases everything after the first letter. This tool only changes names that are all capitals or all lowercase, so mixed-case names someone typed carefully stay as they are; hyphenated and apostrophe names are capitalised on each part (jean-luc becomes Jean-Luc).

PROPER also does nothing about the other things that break a greeting: emoji, titles, pronouns in brackets, or a company name in the first name field.

What should I use when the first name is missing?

A neutral fallback that reads naturally in your opening line. "Hi there," is the usual one; many sending tools let you set a fallback inside the merge tag, but the syntax differs from tool to tool. Filling it in the file works everywhere.

When the address is personal, such as ana.silva@, a name read from it is better than a fallback. Role addresses such as info@ or sales@ never give a name.

What counts as a bad first name?

Blanks; single initials (J or J.); placeholders such as test, n/a, none, customer or asdf; an email address typed into the name field; company names (anything with Inc, LLC, Ltd, GmbH, Group or Team); and runs of repeated letters. Each one gets the fallback, or a name from the address, and the reason is written in first_name_note.

Long names and names with three or more words are kept but marked for a look, since they are more often a full name in the wrong column. Our guide to personalisation at scale covers what else to check before a merge.

Is this better than PROPER in Excel?

	This tool	`=PROPER()`
JANE and jane	Jane	Jane
McDonald, DeShawn	Left as typed	Mcdonald, Deshawn
Dr. Kim, Sam (he/him), emoji	Kim, Sam	Unchanged
Blank, n/a, Acme Inc	Fallback or name from email	Unchanged

Who uses this tool, and for what?

Cold emailers: Stop "Hi JOHN," and "Hi ," from going out in a 5,000-row sequence built from a scraped list.
Newsletter owners: Tidy the first name field of a signup export before using it in a subject line.
Agencies: Fix a client's lead file once, with a note on every changed row they can review.
Event teams: Clean names typed into a registration form before sending personalised follow-ups.

What can’t this tool tell you?

It can't tell whether a name is real or spelled the way the person spells it; it fixes format, not facts.
Names typed all in capitals or all in lowercase are capitalised by rule, so a name like DeShawn typed as DESHAWN becomes Deshawn.
Placeholder and company words are English; other languages' junk values pass through.
A name read from the address is a guess; rows where it is less sure are marked for a look.

Common questions

How do I capitalise names in a CSV?: Paste or upload it here and press Clean first names. Names in all capitals or all lowercase are capitalised; mixed-case names are left alone.
How do I remove Mr, Mrs and Dr from names?: They're removed automatically when a name follows them, so Dr. Kim becomes Kim. A cell that is only a title gets the fallback.
Can it split a full name into first and last?: It keeps the first word if you untick two-word names. For a proper split with suffixes and surname particles, use split full name.
Does it work for non-English names?: Yes for letters in any script: accents and non-Latin names are kept. The placeholder and company word lists are English.
Is my list uploaded?: No. Cleaning happens in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose to check the addresses afterwards.

A tidy list can still be full of dead addresses.

Extracting, deduplicating and syntax checks all work on the text of an address. None of them can tell whether the mailbox exists. Only the server that hosts it can answer that, through an SMTP check, and that is what the paid product does.

Upload the cleaned file as it is: CSVs up to 100,000 rows
A real SMTP mailbox check on every row, with catch-all detection
Small list? Starter at $9/mo covers 2,500 emails a month, cancel anytime

Get started — $39/mo See the published limits first

Plans from $9 a month, cancel anytime, no contract. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. The free tools stay free either way.