# How to get the initials of a full name in Excel

In Excel 365, split the name into words and keep each first letter: =UPPER(CONCAT(LEFT(TEXTSPLIT(A2," "),1))).

**Excel:** `=UPPER(CONCAT(LEFT(TEXTSPLIT(A2," "),1)))` (Microsoft 365 only)

**Google Sheets:** `=UPPER(REGEXREPLACE(A2,"(\S)\S*\s*","$1"))`

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B |
| --- | --- |
| Full name | Initials |
| Maria Lopez |  |
| James O'Neil |  |
| Mary Ann Smith |  |
| Lars Eriksen |  |
| chidi okafor |  |
| Aiko Tanaka |  |

Formula in B2, filled to B7: `=UPPER(CONCAT(LEFT(TEXTSPLIT(A2," "),1)))`

Result: ML; JO; MAS; LE; CO; AT

## How it works

TEXTSPLIT turns "Mary Ann Smith" into three words, LEFT takes the first letter of each, and CONCAT joins them into "MAS". UPPER fixes names typed in lowercase.

In Google Sheets, REGEXREPLACE keeps the first character of each word (the part in brackets) and drops the rest of the word and the space after it.

## Other ways

- `=UPPER(LEFT(A2,1)&MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,1))`: Works in every version for two-part names: the first letter, plus the letter after the first space. (Takes only two initials, so "Mary Ann Smith" gives MA.)

## Common mistakes

- Hyphenated names count as one word: "Jean-Luc Picard" gives JP. Add the hyphen as a second delimiter if you want JLP: `TEXTSPLIT(A2,{" ","-"})`.
- CONCAT and TEXTSPLIT need Excel 365 (CONCAT alone needs 2019). In older versions, use the two-initial formula.

## Questions

**How do I add a period after each initial?**

Join a period to each letter before CONCAT: `=UPPER(CONCAT(LEFT(TEXTSPLIT(A2," "),1)&"."))` gives "M.L.".

**Can I make an acronym from a phrase the same way?**

Yes. The formula works on any words: "Annual General Meeting" gives AGM.

Every formula and result on this page was checked by running it in the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine on 2026-10-30.

Source: https://spreadsheetpractice.com/formulas/get-initials-from-a-name