Excel – how to separate first name and last name from a full name

The following Excel formulas allow you to take a coumn with a full names (first name and last name) and separate the first and last name into their own columns.

MSExcel-SeparateFirstLastName1

Separate first name

This formula uses the full name in field A2 and outputs the first full word before the first space.

=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2,1)-1)

Separate last name

This formula uses the full name in field A2 and outputs the last full word after the last space.

=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(" ",A2,1))

Example download

Download: Example Excel spreadsheet – how separate first and last name from full name