How to add a first name to an email, SMS, or push message

You will learn

Learn how to add a variable that dynamically populates a recipient’s first name in an email, SMS, or push message. These are supported in campaigns and flows, the body of any message, and an email’s subject line.

Add a first name variable

1. Open a message (i.e., email, SMS, or push) in Klaviyo.
2. Click where you want the first name to appear in the text field, then click the Add personalization icon (person icon).
3. Select First name from the list.
   

4. Optional: in the Default text field, add text to display to recipients whose first name is not set. For example, if you have a line that says "Hey FIRST_NAME," you can use there as the default text.
   • If a recipient’s first name is not set, this example will read "Hey there,". Without default text, the first name is left blank, so the greeting would read "Hey ,".
5. Optional: choose an option under Capitalization:
   • As typed
     The recipient's name will appear as it appears on their profile.
   • Ag (i.e., title case)
     The recipient's name will be converted to title case (e.g., mary jane becomes Mary Jane).
   • AG (i.e., upper case)
     The recipient's name will be converted to all upper case letters.
   • ag (i.e., lower case)
     The recipient's name will be converted to all lower case letters.
6. Click Insert.
7. Review the inserted variable. If you set there as the default text and choose Ag (title case), it uses {{ person.first_name|title|default:'there' }}. The editor can display this as a First name OR there label. The shorter {{ first_name|title|default:'there' }} form also works.
8. Preview your message before sending to check the name and fallback text. Use a profile with a first name and one without a first name to check both results. Learn how to choose a profile in the preview panel.

When you send the message, this tag will be replaced with each recipient’s name, or your default text if their first name is not set.

Customize your first name variable

In the example above, |default:'there' and |title are filters. Klaviyo offers a wide range of filters to customize how variables appear. Learn more about using filters in Klaviyo.

Additional resources