Yep, see: 

Thanks @Scott Baldwin! Do you know if you have the ability to use {recipient_firstname} instead of {recipient_username}? All of the email templates use {recipient_username}, and I just don’t like having an email addressed as “Hi tiffany.oda” instead of “Hi Tiffany”. I was hoping for a full repository of what’s possible, and less a list of the existing ones in the email templates. 

Thanks again! 

Unfortunately, only the values that are listed in Julian’s thread are valid. Custom profile fields can’t be used as variables in emails as it’s a bit too complicated I’m afraid.

Using the username is also a handy way to get a username reminder too! You’ll be amazed at how many people try to login with their email address rather than username (which doesn’t work unless you’ve got SSO enabled!) and completely forget their own username. It’s also a little bit more privacy preserving as well. I never reveal my publicly real name alongside my online name anywhere out of personal choice. Username also feels a bit less scary for these things - especially if think about how a user might react if you were using their first name without them knowing about it.

@tiffany.oda like you wish there was a way to make it more personal. Might make a good idea submission to make!

Yup, it would probably have to become one of the profile fields that’s in the default list though, so that it wouldn’t break if you removed it - right now I think most communities that have a first name field use a custom one, so there’d also have to be a matter of how to migrate from that too.

In theory, it would be possible to pull that off, but in practice might not be as easy as it sounds. :)