# Dynamic name fall back

**URL:** <https://forum.mautic.org/t/dynamic-name-fall-back/8387>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [April 30, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/dynamic-name-fall-back/8387 "2017-04-30T09:53:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fahed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/97f17d/32.png) [@fahed](https://forum.mautic.org/u/fahed)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/dynamic-name-fall-back/8387/1 "2017-04-30T09:53:02Z")

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When customising an email with “Hi {contactfield=firstname},” what can I do to fall back on “there” (i.e. Hi there,) when a contact doesn’t have a first name?  
  
  
  
Can this be done without renaming everyone’s first name to “there” in the contact table?

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**Author:** ![fahed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/97f17d/32.png) [@fahed](https://forum.mautic.org/u/fahed)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/dynamic-name-fall-back/8387/2 "2017-04-30T09:53:02Z")

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When customising an email with “Hi {contactfield=firstname},” what can I do to fall back on “there” (i.e. Hi there,) when a contact doesn’t have a first name?

Can this be done without renaming everyone’s first name to “there” in the contact table?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fahed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/97f17d/32.png) [@fahed](https://forum.mautic.org/u/fahed)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://forum.mautic.org/t/dynamic-name-fall-back/8387/3 "2017-04-30T18:28:44Z")

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Thanks for that!

For anyone else reading this, you need to go into the source code to add the fall-back.