How can I extract initials from a name in Excel?

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To extract initials from a name in Excel, you can use the LEFT and FIND functions to locate the first letter of each word in the name and then combine them using the CONCATENATE function. This will create a formula that will automatically extract the initials from any name entered in a specific cell. This method is useful for creating tables or lists where only the initials of a person’s name are needed. Additionally, it can save time and effort compared to manually typing out the initials for each name.

Extract Initials from Name in Excel

You can use the following formula in Excel to extract the initials from a name:

=LEFT(TEXTBEFORE(A2, " "),1)&LEFT(TEXTAFTER(A2, " "),1)

This particular formula extracts the initials from the name in cell A2.

For example, if cell A2 contains Andy Moss then this formula would return AM.

The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.

Example: How to Extract Initials from Name in Excel

Suppose we have the following column of names in Excel:

Suppose we would like to extract the initials from each name in column A.

We can type the following formula into cell B2 to do so:

=LEFT(TEXTBEFORE(A2, " "),1)&LEFT(TEXTAFTER(A2, " "),1)

We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:

Excel extract initials from name

Column B now contains the initials from each name in column A.

For example:

  • The initials for Andy Moss are AM.
  • The initials for Bob Douglas are BD.
  • The initials for Chad Reed are CR.

And so on.

How This Formula Works

Recall the formula that we used to extract the initials from the name in cell A2:

=LEFT(TEXTBEFORE(A2, " "),1)&LEFT(TEXTAFTER(A2, " "),1)

Here is how this formula works:

First, we use TEXTBEFORE(A2, ” “) to extract all text before the first space. This returns Andy.

Then we use the LEFT function to only return the first character on the left. This returns A.

Then, we use TEXTAFTER(A2, ” “) to extract all text after the first space. This returns Moss.

Then we use the LEFT function to only return the first character on the left. This returns M.

Lastly, we use the & symbol to concatenate together A and M to get AM as the final result.

The same process is repeated for each name.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Excel:

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