When I do a participant import and validate data only, I receive an error message that the name fields are missing when they are not missing. Once I do the import and uncheck "validate only," the import is completely fine. This is a major bug, and I only knew it was a bug because I went deep into the Google search results and found an old report from 2008 called "The Raiser's Edge 7 Outstanding Issues - Blackbaud" "https://www.blackbaud.com/files/bbe/UsersEdge/documents/re7out7.85.rtf
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS INFORMATION!!
I have been unsuccessfully trying for a full week to get my participant import to work - and I had no idea why I kept seeing that name fields were missing. I am grateful I found your comment. Once I removed the validate data only, my import worked.