diff --git a/comment_notify/comment_notify.module b/comment_notify/comment_notify.module
index 01a3330..b780c3d 100644
--- a/comment_notify/comment_notify.module
+++ b/comment_notify/comment_notify.module
@@ -397,9 +397,11 @@ function _comment_notify_mailalert($comment) {
   if (empty($enabled_types[$node->type])) {
     return;
   }
+  
+  // Load the user object for the comment account.
+  $comment_account = user_load(array('name' => $comment->name));
 
   if (!isset($comment->mail)) {
-    $comment_account = user_load(array('name' => $comment->name));
     $comment_mail = $comment_account->mail;
   }
   else {
@@ -418,7 +420,7 @@ function _comment_notify_mailalert($comment) {
       variable_get('node_notify_default_mailtext', AUTHOR_MAILTEXT),
       array(
         '!cid' => $cid,
-        '!commname' => $comment->name,
+        '!commname' => strip_tags(theme('username', $comment_account)),
         '!commtext' => drupal_html_to_text($comment_text),
         '!commsubj' => $comment->subject,
         '!comment_url' => url('node/'. $nid, array('absolute' => TRUE, 'fragment' => 'comment-'. $cid)),
@@ -427,7 +429,7 @@ function _comment_notify_mailalert($comment) {
         '!mission' => variable_get('site_mission', ''),
         '!nid' =>  $nid,
         '!node_body' =>  drupal_html_to_text($node_body),
-        '!name' => $author->name,
+        '!name' => strip_tags(theme('username', $author)),
         '!site' => variable_get('site_name', 'drupal'),
         '!uri' => $base_url,
         '!uri_brief' => preg_replace('!^https?://!', '', $base_url),
@@ -478,7 +480,7 @@ function _comment_notify_mailalert($comment) {
         variable_get('comment_notify_default_mailtext', DEFAULT_MAILTEXT),
         array(
           '!cid' => $cid,
-          '!commname' => $comment->name,
+          '!commname' => strip_tags(theme('username', $comment_account)),
           '!commtext' => drupal_html_to_text($comment_text),
           '!commsubj' => $comment->subject,
           '!comment_url' => url('node/'. $nid, array('absolute' => TRUE, 'fragment' => 'comment-'. $cid)),
@@ -487,7 +489,7 @@ function _comment_notify_mailalert($comment) {
           '!mission' => variable_get('site_mission', ''),
           '!nid' =>  $nid,
           '!node_body' =>  drupal_html_to_text($node_body),
-          '!name' => $alert->name,
+          '!name' => strip_tags(theme('username', $alert)),
           '!site' => variable_get('site_name', 'drupal'),
           '!uri' => $base_url,
           '!uri_brief' => preg_replace('!^https?://!', '', $base_url),