Skip to content
Salesforce Dictionary - Free Salesforce GlossarySalesforce Dictionary
Full Local Name entry
How-to guide

Expose a Local Name field to your users

Local name fields ship on Account, Contact, Lead, and User, but they are hidden until an admin exposes them. Use this flow to make a local name field visible to the right users on one object. Repeat per object and per profile as needed.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Founder & Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Jun 16, 2026

Local name fields ship on Account, Contact, Lead, and User, but they are hidden until an admin exposes them. Use this flow to make a local name field visible to the right users on one object. Repeat per object and per profile as needed.

  1. Open the object in Object Manager

    From Setup, go to Object Manager and select the object that has the local name field, for example Contact or Account.

  2. Add the field to a page layout

    Open Page Layouts, edit the layout your users see, then drag the local field such as First Name (Local) or Account Name (Local) into a section.

  3. Grant field-level security

    Open the field and set field-level security, or use Field Accessibility, so the profiles that need the local name can read and edit it.

  4. Verify per profile

    Log in as a user on each affected profile, or use the layout assignment view, to confirm the field appears and is editable where expected.

Page layout placementremember

The local field only shows where you drag it; assign the right layout to each profile and record type so the correct audience sees it.

Field-level securityremember

Read and edit access is controlled per profile; without it the field stays hidden even after it is on the layout.

Customizable person namesremember

Optionally enable Middle Names and Name Suffixes under Setup, User Interface, which extends the local set with a Middle Name (Local) field.

Gotchas
  • Adding the field to a layout is not enough; without field-level security the profile still cannot see it.
  • Custom reports show an empty value when a local name is blank, while standard reports fall back to the standard name field.
  • Database.com is the documented exception for business account local names; confirm your edition before promising the feature.
  • Loading the romanized name into the local field is a frequent import error that quietly corrupts the customer-facing name.

See the full Local Name entry

Local Name includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.