Messages showing initials after latest update

I came to the forum to find a solution to this problem that has suddenly materialized where the full name of people I’m texting with has suddenly changed from “Joe Blow” to “J.B.” Not everyone though, just random people with no explanation - some have a photo in their profile and some do not for example. Anyway so I read things from 2020 and March of 2022 in the forum here where the support person gave all these instructions which I felt in my gut were not going to help. So I started digging myself and am hoping it will be helpful for you to know that the “Nickname” field in the contact record now seems to have magically got a value in it if the person’s initials. I’m guessing this is Apple trying to be helpful but it is super annoying. So now when it happens I just go into the contact and remove initials from “nickname” and the “problem” goes away.

Apple please do not help me assign nicknames to my contacts. Thank you!