The English customer names in my orders file are all in capitals; how do I turn them into normal names for shipping labels?
Copy the whole name column, paste it into the case converter one name per line, and choose «Title Case»: every part of the name gets a capital first letter and the rest goes lower case, so AHMED AL-SAYED becomes Ahmed Al-Sayed. Paste the column back, then glance over the few names with unusual spelling.
Why names arrive in capitals
Some payment gateways and shipping systems store the name exactly as it appears on the bank card, and cards print names in capitals. Some customers also type their names that way on the order form. The result is an orders file full of SARA MOHAMMED and AHMED AL-SAYED, and a shipping label that seems to shout at the customer.
A real example from the tool
Two lines from an orders file: AHMED AL-SAYED, then SARA MOHAMMED. With «Title Case» and «Lower the rest of each word» ticked (the default), the result was:
- Ahmed Al-Sayed
- Sara Mohammed
Look at Al-Sayed: both parts around the hyphen got a capital, because the tool splits words at the hyphen. The counters under the result report 19 characters changed out of 24 cased letters: every letter except the first of each of the five name parts. That is a quick way to confirm the whole list was converted.
Why not sentence case?
Sentence case raises only the first letter of the line and lowers everything else. On the same two names it produced Ahmed al-sayed and Sara mohammed. The family name went lower case, which is not acceptable in a person's name. For names, use title case every time.
The «Keep English small words lowercase» option makes no difference here, since names do not contain words like of or the; the result is identical with it on or off.
Names that need your eye
The tool knows no proper nouns; it applies one rule to every word. Three names with special spelling, MOHAMMED MCDONALD, NOURA O'NEILL and ABDULLAH BIN SAUD, came out as:
- Mohammed Mcdonald, where the usual spelling is McDonald with a capital D.
- Noura O'neill, usually written O'Neill.
- Abdullah Bin Saud, though some families write bin in lower case. That is the customer's choice, not the tool's.
Cases like these are few in a normal file. Skim the result after converting and fix the ones you know, or copy the spelling the customer uses in their messages if you have it.
Steps
- Copy the name column from your orders export (Salla, Zid, Shopify or a spreadsheet).
- Paste it into the Text case converter, one name per line.
- Choose «Title Case» and leave «Lower the rest of each word» ticked.
- Copy the result and paste it back into the same column. Line order never changes, so every name stays next to its order.
After converting
Converting often reveals repeats that were hidden: a customer who typed SARA MOHAMMED once and Sara Mohammed another time now has two identical lines. If you are building a customer list rather than an orders list, run the names through the Duplicate-line remover to keep one copy of each.
Common questions
Are Arabic names in the same file affected?
No. Arabic has no capital and small letters, so those names pass through unchanged, and the tool shows how many uncased letters it carried over.
How many names can I convert at once?
The tool was tested with 100,000 lines. Above about 4,000 lines automatic conversion stops and you press «Convert» yourself.