How to get user name display on every page?

I am trying to get "Hi <users name> " in the header of my shop - along the lines of the logout/account button - trying to make it more personal

So it would Say

Hi Sarah | Your Account | Your Basket £2.00 5 items

But I have no idea how I can get that "name" inserted? Tried various firstname php calls and none work - I can see %s is used for the "greet user" section - but doesn't copy across either

Thanks
Sarah

You could use the session variable:
$_SESSION['customer_first_name']

Thank you sometimes I am truly thick :) the only thing I didn't try!

Is there a list/detail of what details we have stored in the sessions?

You could add, temporarily to the:
/includes/templates/template_default/common/tpl_header.php

the code in RED:

[B]<?php
echo '<pre>'; echo print_r($_SESSION); echo '</pre>';
?>
[/B]<?php
  // Display all header alerts via messageStack:

NOTE: check if you have:
/includes/templates/your_template_dir/common/tpl_header.php

as an override and if you do add it there ...

Then, login and you can see the $_SESSION variables that exist ...

SarahL:

I am trying to get "Hi <users name> " in the header of my shop - along the lines of the logout/account button - trying to make it more personal

So it would Say

Hi Sarah | Your Account | Your Basket £2.00 5 items

But I have no idea how I can get that "name" inserted? Tried various firstname php calls and none work - I can see %s is used for the "greet user" section - but doesn't copy across either

Thanks
Sarah

Just to add some formatting, this site http://torontogoldsilver.com/ uses this code:

includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_header.php

This shows 'Welcome!' for guests and once you're logged in adds 'Hello (First Name)'

You can then set the CSS style for .headerGreeting as you wish.