MySql Help

Hello, I have a database with 4 Columns |ID|First|Second|Third| I am tring to run a query On the First Column and place the data into an array. The problem that I am running into Is that there are doubles, triples, and sometimes more of the same name in that column. Each name represents something differnet in the "Second" and "Third" and when I run a simple query (select "first" from "table") I get (expectedly) all of the names in the Column "doubles" and all. My question is , is there a way to select from a database and only select one of each name from the column? Example. Data ---->Data Data Data Data Data1---->Data1 Data1 Data2---->Data2 Data2 Data2 Data2 Thanks for any advice. Jared