Contact 'Name Box' sometimes shows email instead of FirstName LastName

[westy]

On the Individuals 'Contact' card, at the top of the page is an editable Contact Name box.
90% of my contacts correctly show First Name, Last Name, but some show the contact's email address instead.
Clicking the 'Edit Contact Name' box shows the 'Prefix', 'First Name', 'Last Name' fields populated with the Contacts correct 'First Name', 'Last Name' but on clicking 'Save' the Contact Name still shows the email address.
Also, in these cases, with a contact called Fred Smith and email info@fsmith.com, typing this name in the white 'Find Contact' box (top Left) the automatic search will not show as I type Fred and only as I get to FRED SMI will it find fsmith .com.
Any ideas why I can't change the displayed name?
Thanks
CiviCRM 4.5.3 on Drupal 7

[Coleman Watts]

Weird, I've never experienced that before.
I assume this is only on your site and not reproducable on http://d45.demo.civicrm.org/

[westy]

No, I can't reproduce it on the demo site.
Even deleting the email completely and changing the contact name in the full edit box will not reset the original email address in the Name box.
Interestingly, creating a new contact with the same first name last name does not register as a matching contact and has no name in the 'Contact Name box.

Oh! something is broken. Creating a new contact with new data does not show any name in the Title. The name fields are shown in the edit box but on saving are not displayed as the title. So it looks like if the Title can't display first name last name, it looks for email address to display

[clarkac]

Look in Administer/Communications/Addressee Formats - is there a default checked for individuals?  Somehow the default got unchecked for one of my clients, although the result was different from your description.  Worth a look though

[joanne]

It sounds more like Individual Display Name Format is empty or incorrectly set on Administer > Customize data and screens > display settings.

Check that it is set to {contact.first_name}{ }{contact.last_name}.   If not and you set it to that, you should be aware that you need to rebuild the display_name field in contacts table, as the changes only take effect when an existing contact is edited or a new one created.

Also for the search problem you are having, you should check Individual Sort Name Format.  That is (currently*) used for searches, so if it is set to {contact.last_name}{, }{contact.first_name} you will need to type in smith, fred.

*I say "currently" as http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,35165 talks about changing this.

[joanne]

Actually, it sounds like another manifestation of http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,33928.msg143820.html

[westy]

Thanks joanne for pointing that out, that fixed it.
Thanks too to SarahG for the fix.