From where does outlook takes display name for an email address?

Question

How display name is assigned to email address? Say for an incoming mail from abc@xyz.com it shows Abc in outlook. That means this email id must be registered on some exchange server with other information. How & where is it done?

Answer 1

Most like the sender puts it in the actual email header like so

From: Blizzard Entertainment <noreply@em.blizzard.com>

Then your mail client displays Blizzard Entertainment instead of the actual email address.

Or your mail client takes the username part and does some guessing. That really depends on the client application though. So abc@xyz.com -> Abc

Answer 2

In general there are three options:

• The sender email address user@example.com gets recognised.
  Typically because that address already exists in the recipients personal address book, the corporate address book, Active Directory etc. but maybe also from a message signature, a previous reply, a v-card etc.
  And regardless of the (lack of) display name in the actual email message, the mail client displays the Contact Name from the associated address book entry as the sender.

• The mail client such as Outlook displays the name that the sender set and which gets included in the From: message header before the actual SMTP email address:
  From: Display Name <user@example.com>
  The mail client should show Display Name as the sender.

• The sender did not include a display name in the message and the headers show only a SMTP email address: From: user@example.com.
  The mail client displays user@example.com as the sender.