Written and reviewed by FormulaCraft Team. Each formula on this page is run through our verification engine before publishing.
Last reviewed:
How to extract the last name in Excel and Google Sheets
Topic:Text manipulationExcel & Google Sheets
=MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,LEN(A2))✓
Verified example
Computed by a real spreadsheet engine on the sample data below.
| Full Name | Last Name |
| Alice Smith | |
| Bob Jones | |
| Carol White | |
| Dan Brown | |
| Eve Black |
=MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,LEN(A2))→Smith
Try it with your data
Edit the grid or formula, then run it through a real spreadsheet engine — no signup.
Sample data — click any cell to edit
Runs server-side · free · no signup
Step by step
- 1Ensure your names are in "First Last" format with a single space separator.
- 2In an empty column, enter =MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,LEN(A2)) to extract everything after the first space.
- 3Apply TRIM to the result if extra spaces may be present: =TRIM(MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,LEN(A2))).
- 4Copy the formula down to all rows.
Tips
- For "Last, First" format, the last name is simply LEFT(A2,FIND(",",A2)-1) — no MID needed.
Need it for your exact data?
Describe your columns in plain English and get the precise formula for your sheet, with the right Excel or Sheets syntax.
Frequently asked
What about names with two last names (hyphenated or spaced)?
The formula returns everything after the first space, so "Mary Van Der Berg" yields "Van Der Berg" automatically.
What if the cell contains only a first name with no space?
FIND returns #VALUE!. Protect with IFERROR: =IFERROR(MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,LEN(A2)),"").
More on Text manipulation
See all →How-to
How to split text into columns
Split a full name or any delimited text into separate columns. Google Sheets uses SPLIT; Excel uses TEXTSPLIT — here is each.
How-toHow to remove extra spaces
Clean leading, trailing, and double spaces with TRIM — the usual fix for lookups that fail on values that look identical.
How-toHow to convert text to a number
Turn numbers stored as text into real numbers with VALUE or by multiplying by 1 — the fix for sums that ignore values.
How-toHow to extract the domain from an email address
Pull everything after the @ from an email using FIND and MID. Works the same in Excel and Google Sheets.
How-toHow to extract the first name from a full name
Get the first name from a full name with LEFT and FIND, splitting on the first space. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
How-toHow to add leading zeros
Pad numbers to a fixed width with leading zeros using TEXT, or a custom number format. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.