Labels and visibility

Label, Name, and Hidden label — the three settings that control how an option is identified and whether its label is visible to customers.

Every option that collects customer input has a Label and a Name, and most also offer Hidden label. Together, these settings determine what customers see on the product page and what is stored with the order.

They are one of the most common sources of confusion in the app, so start with the key difference:

	Label	Name
Who reads it	The customer, on the product page	You and your team — and the customer, once the item is in their cart
Where it appears	Above the option field in the widget	Cart page, checkout, order details in Shopify admin, order emails, invoices, packing slips
Required	Yes	Yes
Must be unique	No	Yes, within the option set
Restricted characters	No	Yes
Can be hidden	Yes, with Hidden label	No — it always travels with the order
Translatable per language	Yes	No

Label

The text shown above the option field on your product page.

Tab	Basic
Default	The option type's name — for example a new Text option starts with the label Text
Available on	All types except the purely visual statics, which use their own content fields instead: Divider, Spacing, Heading, Paragraph, HTML, Pop-up modal, Size chart, Tabs

How it behaves

• Required. An option cannot be saved with an empty Label.

• No character restrictions. Punctuation, apostrophes, emoji, and non-Latin scripts are all fine.

• Not required to be unique. Two options may legitimately share a Label — for example a Colour dropdown in a "Front" section and another in a "Back" section.

• Translatable per storefront language. See Translate option content.

• On a Section, the Label is the group heading rather than a field label.

Writing good labels

Instead of	Write
Text	Engraving text
Options	Choose your frame color
Upload	Upload your photo
Date	Delivery date

Say what you want, not what the field is. Put the constraint in Help text rather than the Label — Engraving text with help text Up to 20 characters reads better than Engraving text (max 20 characters).

Name

The internal name of the option. It appears on the cart page, at checkout, on the order in your Shopify admin, and in order emails, invoices, and packing slips.

Tab	Basic
Default	The option type's internal identifier — text, checkbox, select, and so on
Available on	All types that collect input. Not on Section or the visual statics, which never reach the order

Name has three rules:

• It cannot be empty

• It must be unique within the option set. The uniqueness check ignores capitalization and leading or trailing spaces.

• It cannot contain . : " ' \ |

How it behaves

• Not translatable, deliberately. Your team sees the same consistent name regardless of the language the customer uses.

• Renamed automatically when needed. If you duplicate an option or import options with duplicate names, the copy is automatically renamed using the option type and a number, such as text-2. Conditional logic rules that reference the renamed option are updated automatically.

• Used by other features to identify the option. This includes the dynamic order-tag workflow, order note templates, and the option_name column in CSV exports.

Practical advice

Change the default Name before you go live. An order line such as text: Forever yours tells you what was entered but not what the field means. Engraving text: Forever yours is much clearer for the person packing the order.

The simplest approach is to make Name the same as Label. Use a different name when:

• The Label is long or styled for the storefront, such as Add an engraving ✨ (optional), but you want a clean order line such as Engraving text.

• The Label contains a character that Name does not allow, such as an apostrophe or colon.

• Two options have the same Label but need different names in the order, such as Colour in two sections named Front colour and Back colour.

• Your storefront supports multiple languages. The Label can be translated per language, while Name stays in one language so your team always sees the same name.

Hidden label

Hidden label hides the option’s Label on the product page. The option still works, and its Name is still included with the order.

Tab	Basic
Default	Off
Available on	22 types — all input and selection types except Hidden field, which has no visible label.

When to use it

• The option is self-explanatory from its placeholder — a single Search… box, for example.

• A Section heading or a Heading element already says what the group is, and the individual label would just repeat it.

• You are building a compact row of options and the labels waste vertical space.

• You are using an image swatch row where the images speak for themselves.

When not to use it

• On required fields. A customer who cannot see what a field is for will not know they have to fill it in, and your error message will be the first explanation they get.

• On anything with a price attached. Customers should be able to see what they are paying for.

• As a way to fix a layout problem. If labels are crowding your page, use Column width or a collapsible Section instead.

Hiding the label does not hide the option. To take an option off the storefront while keeping it configured, use the Hide action on the option instead — see Build your options.

Label, Name, and Hidden label sit together at the top of Basic tab.