Do all the names come out the same width?

No; a name is as wide as its letters at the height you set. The batch tool reports the widest name, so you can check it fits the hoop or the garment area and lower the height for the whole batch if it does not.

Can I put the name under a logo?

Sew the logo as its own file and the name as a second file in the same hooping, or ask the digitiser to leave a blank line in the logo file. Merging into one file is possible in editing software; two files avoids it.

What about names with accents or non-Latin letters?

The bundled fonts cover Latin with accents (é, ñ, ø, ß and the rest). Cyrillic, Greek and Arabic need a font that has them, which the bundled set does not.

Which format should the batch be in?

Whatever your machine reads: PES for Brother and Baby Lock, JEF for Janome, DST for commercial machines, VP3 for Husqvarna and Pfaff. The batch is written once, in one format, as a ZIP.

Batch name embroidery for shops: one lettering setup, one file per name, no re-digitising

Team jackets, school hoodies, staff polos, wedding party robes: a name each, forty at a time. The work is not the sewing; it is producing forty correct files and keeping them straight through hooping. This is the procedure that makes a name run predictable, using the batch name drop for the files and a run sheet for the floor.

Set the lettering once

Every name in a batch shares one setup: font, height, style, colour, arc and spacing. Get that right on the longest and shortest name before generating the batch:

Open the lettering tool with the longest name in the list. Set the font and the cap height. Check the width against the space on the garment (a left chest holds about 90 mm; a jacket back 250 mm or more).
Choose the style by the height. Satin for anything from 6 to 25 mm cap height. Fill with a satin edge above that. Satin versus fill has the reasoning; font sizes that stitch has the limits per font.
Read the warnings. Strokes under 1.2 mm and satin under 5 mm cap height are warnings you act on by changing the font or the size, not by hoping.
Try the shortest name. A two-letter name at the same height looks small next to a long one; that is normal, and the alternative (scaling each name to a fixed width) makes the letters different heights, which looks worse.

Prepare the list

The batch tool takes one name per line or a CSV. Before you paste it:

Spelling and capitalisation are the customer's. Ask for the list in writing and use it verbatim. "Mackenzie" versus "McKenzie" is the commonest re-do in name work, and it is only free when the customer typed it.
Decide case. All caps is wider and reads better below 8 mm; mixed case needs more height for the ascenders and descenders.
Watch the widest. The tool reports the widest name after generating. If it exceeds the space, lower the height for the whole batch, do not tighten the letter spacing below about −0.05, which starts merging letters.
Duplicates. Two "Sam"s need two files or one file sewn twice; the tool writes one file per line, so leave the duplicate in if you want the count to match the garments.

Generate and check

The batch is one ZIP: a file per name in the format you chose, plus a colour sheet and a manifest listing each name with its stitch count and size. Open two or three at random in the viewer and run the sew-out simulator; if the setup was right on the longest and shortest name, the rest are right.

Stitch counts vary with the name length: at 12 mm satin, roughly 150 stitches per letter, so "Jo" is 300 and "Christopher" 1,650. The manifest total is what you feed the price calculator for the run time.

Sequence the run

Names on a single-head machine are hooping-limited: the stitching takes 20 to 40 seconds per name, hooping 30 to 60. The order of work that keeps the machine busy:

Print the manifest. Number the garments to match, with masking tape on the hanger or a sticky note inside the collar.
Load the whole batch to the machine's memory or USB stick. Files are named after the name, so the operator selects by reading, not by counting.
Hoop the next garment while the current one sews. On a single-needle machine with one hoop this is not possible, so buy a second hoop; on name runs it pays for itself in a day.
Keep the colour fixed. If the customer wants two colours across the batch, sort the list by colour and sew all of one before changing.
Check each name against the manifest before you unhoop. A misspelt name caught in the hoop is a re-sew; caught after unhooping it is a new garment.

Names that go under an existing logo: sew the logo file, then the name file in the same hooping, using the machine's positioning to place it below. Merging them into one file is possible in editing software, but two files keeps the logo untouched and lets you reposition the name for each garment size.

Where the time goes on 40 names

At 650 stitches a minute, 12 mm satin names of 8 letters average 1,200 stitches: two minutes of sewing per garment. Add 45 seconds to hoop, 15 to check and unhoop, and a batch of 40 is about 40 × 3 = two hours of machine time, plus 15 minutes to set up and generate, plus the colour change if there is one. Two hoops and one operator can keep the machine sewing 70 % of the time; one hoop, about 50 %.

Quote from that, not from the stitch count: how to price embroidery has the per-piece arithmetic, and run time the speed numbers to plug in.

When not to batch

Names on caps: the cap frame changes the sewing order (bottom up) and the fabric curve; test one before committing. Names over 25 mm on structured fabric: fill-edge names that big pull noticeably and need a cutaway stabiliser trial. Names in a script font under 10 mm: the connecting strokes are under 1 mm and shred; go bigger or change the font.