If sender's displayName starts with 'the', shorten it by using the second word.

[sfsam]

I get emails from a sender called "The Intercept". DejaLu shortens this sender name in the conversation list to just "The". I'd suggest shortening names that start with "The" to use the second word instead of the first. In this case, it would shorten to "Intercept". This appears to be what Gmail does.

You could go further (mimicking Gmail):

1. If there is just one sender, use the full display name ("The Intercept").
2. If there are multiple senders, use the shortened display names ("me, Intercept")

[dinhvh]

Since the sender + subject is on the same line (for more space efficiency), using the first word in all situation is useful. We could probably special case "The" as you describe in 2/

[sfsam]

For what it's worth, this is how I'm using Dejalu. The cells are the same height as before, but the sender and subject are now on different lines. I've found it useful to be able to see more at a glance. Having a fuller name when there is just one message means I can tell apart different senders who share the same first name. When it is from a generic username (noreply), having the domain (@kp.org) tells me quickly it's about health insurance and not something unimportant.