diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/mesh/model/UIState.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/mesh/model/UIState.kt
index 1a260136f..a673dd6e8 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/mesh/model/UIState.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/geeksville/mesh/model/UIState.kt
@@ -20,17 +20,18 @@ import com.geeksville.mesh.service.MeshService
 /// that user. If the original name is only one word, strip vowels from the original name and if the result is
 /// 3 or more characters, use the first three characters. If not, just take the first 3 characters of the
 /// original name.
-fun getInitials(name: String): String {
+fun getInitials(nameIn: String): String {
     val nchars = 3
     val minchars = 2
+    val name = nameIn.trim()
     val words = name.split(Regex("\\s+")).filter { it.isNotEmpty() }
 
     val initials = when (words.size) {
-        in 0..minchars-1 -> {
+        in 0..minchars - 1 -> {
             val nm = name.filterNot { c -> c.toLowerCase() in "aeiou" }
             if (nm.length >= nchars) nm else name
         }
-        else -> words.map{ it.first() }.joinToString("")
+        else -> words.map { it.first() }.joinToString("")
     }
     return initials.take(nchars)
 }