Every Master Record, be it Household or Organization, will have a name, which is often how you access the record when searching. While names do not have to be unique, it will make your job much easier if you make them distinct.

There are actually two name fields relevant to each Master Record - the Name field, and the SortBy field which should just be a word or two that helps when the database in alphabetizing records in reports.

Name field is the primary name on this record. It is what will appear on Mailing Lists, letters, envelopes, reports, and the default name associated with every donation. It is recommended that this is the most formal name for this record (e.g. 'William and Elizabeth Montgomery, Jr.' even if they usually go by 'Bill and Liz' or 'The Caprio Group, LLC' which you might otherwise refer to simply as 'Caprio Group').

If this record is a Household, the Name field might be 'Jon and Jane Smith' (with the SortBy field of 'Smith') or 'Chris Smith and Terry Doe' (with the SortBy field of either 'Smith' or 'Doe' whichever makes more sense to you in an alphabetical list of donors) or 'The Billie Johnson Family' (with the SortBy field of 'Johnson') or simply 'Francis Jones' (with the SortBy field of 'Jones'). If this record is an Organization, the Name field will likely look like 'The ABC Company' (with a SortBy field of 'ABC').

Greeting field that is the default text that will appear in the 'Dear' line when you send a letter from the database. The Greeting might be fairly formal 'Dr. and Mr. Smith' or their nicknames 'Jon and Liz' When you first enter a Master Record, you can easily see what names they prefer to be called. After all, no one likes being addressed by the wrong name.