Make the first character of a string uppercase (if that character is alphabetic, of course). A new string is created and returned leaving the original string as it was.

$str = 'my name is mudd';
$new = ucfirst($str); // My name is mudd
 
$str = '76 trombones';
$new = ucfirst($str); // 76 trombones
 
// ucfirst() does not put anything to lowercase
$str = 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY';
$new = ucfirst($str);    // HAPPY BIRTHDAY
 
$low = strtolower($str); // happy birthday
$new = ucfirst($low);    // Happy birthday
See the manual entry for ucfirst()