Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Reordering Last Name and First Name.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 27, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
You may have a worksheet containing many cells with names that are in LastName, FirstName MI format. A common example of this would be an Excel worksheet designed to work as an expense account reporting form. You may want to convert these employee names into standard format, i.e. FirstName MI LastName. Performing this operation on more than a handful of cells can become quite cumbersome.
To make the conversion job easier, you can use a handy formula that rearranges the parts of the name for you. Assume that cell A1 contains the name Doe, Jane Q. and you want the conversion (Jane Q. Doe) to appear in cell B1. Place the following formula in B1:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here:
=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-LEN(LEFT(A1,FIND(",",A1)
-1))-2) & " " & LEFT(A1,FIND(",",A1)-1)
The formula works by breaking the string based on the placement of the comma. The formula will also work with suffixes and multiple middle initials as long as there is one and only one comma present in the source cell.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2168) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Reordering Last Name and First Name.
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