How to avoid WhatsApp locking up my contacts If there is a contact who has WhatsApp, the contact was locked from name changes and also create weird changes such as removing any white spaces in the name (even between first name and last name).  I like to keep the Whatsapp association but do not want to have WhatsApp taking over the contact changes.
What is the solution?
Go to Settings > Accounts > Whatsapp > My Whatsapp Account
Remove the account
Make any necessary contact changes
Open up Whatsapp
At this point, Whatsapp should re-associate your contacts with the existing users.