Hi,

Technically, there are 2 copies of a user's name stored. 1 in Joomla's core table (#__users), and EasySocial stores it as well.

What the field does is, it stores the "segment" data as it is in EasySocial's database in order to retain the structure of the name (first, middle and last), but Joomla's core table only requires 1 single name, hence the field will group the name together as 1 single name and store it in Joomla's core table.

If the "segmented data" is not found in EasySocial's database, the field will always fallback and uses data from Joomla's core table, which results in 1 single name used as "First Name".

Since you've mentioned that those are old users prior to EasySocial, hence EasySocial does not have the necessary segmented data of their names.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way around this as it is hard to determine which part of the name falls in to middle/last name.

In terms of searching, if you are searching for particularly "last name", then this will be affected, but if you are searching in general, then it won't get affected.