Mail merge sent “Hi ,” — how to handle blank first names

By Paul Kemp · Published 24 September 2026 · Updated 2 October 2026

A mail merge does exactly what the sheet says. If the First Name cell is empty, the email says Hi , — to every recipient whose cell is empty. Here is how to find those rows before sending, and what to put in their place.

Why it happens

Lists are assembled from sign-up forms, exports and copy-paste. First name is often optional on the form, so some rows arrive without one. Others have a name that looks filled in but is only a space, or a non-breaking space copied from a web page. The merge tool treats all of these as “something”, drops it in, and moves on.

Find the blank rows in Google Sheets™

Select the first-name column and choose Data → Create a filter.
Filter by condition: Is empty. Those rows will get Hi ,.
Then filter with the custom formula =LEN(TRIM(A2))=0 (use your column) to catch cells that hold only spaces. TRIM does not remove non-breaking spaces; =LEN(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2),CHAR(160),""))=0 does.

Three ways to fix it

Fill the gaps. If you know the names, type them in. Best result, most work.
Use a fallback. Most merge tools let a tag carry a default used when the cell is empty, so Hi {{First Name}}, becomes Hi there,. The syntax differs by tool, and so does what counts as “empty”, so test it by sending the merge to yourself with one blank row.
Rewrite the greeting. Hello, or Dear member, never breaks. Keep the personalisation for the body, where a missing value is easier to spot.

Fallback syntax is not the same everywhere

Tools differ on whether they support fallbacks at all, which character separates the default, and whether a cell with only a space counts as blank. Check your tool's own help page for the exact form, and send yourself a test with a blank row before the real run. The guide's section on blank merged fields lists what to look for.

Ninety seconds: what Mail Merge Pre-flight Check catches before you send. Or the 55-second version, which is about exactly this: an email that opens “Hi ,”.

Check the whole list in one go

Mail Merge Pre-flight Check reads your list and your template together, counts every row that would produce Hi , (including space-only and invisible-character cells), and shows you the actual email each of those recipients would get. Checking is free.

Mail Merge Pre-flight Check checks your list and template in one click. Checking is free.

Mail Merge Pre-flight Check is not affiliated with Google or with any merge tool named on this page. Names are used only to identify them.