Variable Undefined

I haven't done CF in a long time but I didn't think I'd have issues with this simple task. I'm using a simple form, simple table in a database, & simple <cfquery> with insert statement. I can't figure out this issue.

My form code (portion):
<form action="submitform.cfm" method="post" name="sponsorform">
<table border="0">
<tr>
<td>First Name: </td>
<td> <input type="text" name="firstname" size="50" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

My QUERY.
<cfquery name="sponsorsubmit" datasource="webmas5_sponsor">
INSERT INTO sponsorship
(firstname, lastname, email, hittype, amount, maxamount, message)
VALUES ('#sponsorform.firstname#', '#sponsorform.lastname#', '#sponsorform.email#', '#sponsorform.hittype#', '#sponsorform.amount#', '#sponsorform.maxamount#', '#sponsorform.message#')
</cfquery>

I'm getting that 'firstname' is UNDEFINED. I've done a dump of the form and that comes back as empty.

I feel stupid because I can't figure this out!!

Use #form.firstName#.

That wasn't it actually.

I had to add <cfparam> on the form page and set the variable to "". That made it work. I don't know if it is because of newer versions of CF - I had never used that in the past.

No, that should not be necessary. If you do a

<cfdump var="#form#"><cfabort>

on the submitform.cfm action page, you will see all of the form fields that were submitted. If you don't, then something else is wrong.