Ran direct SQL update to bulk update contact names, changes not appearing until editing and saving
It sounds like you imported the first_name and last_name values - but the value at the top of the record is the display_name.  You have two options:


Use your SQL script to update the display_name accordingly.
Export ONLY the contact_id of the affected records (or all records).  Reimport the contact ID via the "Import Contacts" functionality.  All records will be resaved when you import the contact ID and the display_name is recalculated on save.


Incidentally, this is a good if fairly harmless example of why directly updating the database via SQL is usually a bad idea.  If this were imported via the API, the display name would have been recalculated.  In this case, there was no data loss - but if you had tried updating, e.g. donation amounts, the lack of corresponding changes to your line item and financial transaction tables would be difficult to recover from!