Hi RebeccaW,

Yes, Excel can recognize gender based on a person's first name. There are a few ways you can approach this, but one option is to use a formula that references an external database of names and their associated genders.

Here are the steps to do this:

1. Download a database of names and genders. There are several free databases available online, such as the one from the Social Security Administration (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html).
2. Import the database into Excel. You can do this by saving the database as a CSV file and then using the "Import Data" feature in Excel to bring it into your spreadsheet.
3. Create a new column next to the "First Name" column in your spreadsheet.
4. In the first cell of the new column, enter the following formula:
   Formula:

   =VLOOKUP(A2,Database!A:B,2,FALSE) 

5. Replace "A2" with the cell reference for the first name in your spreadsheet, and "Database!A:B" with the range of cells in your imported database that contains the names and genders.
6. Copy the formula down the entire column to populate the courtesy title for each person.

This formula uses the VLOOKUP function to search the database for each person's first name and return the corresponding gender. You can then use an IF statement to assign the appropriate courtesy title based on the gender.

For example, if the gender column is labeled "Gender" and contains "M" for male and "F" for female, you could use the following formula to assign the courtesy title:

This formula checks the gender column and assigns "Mr." for males and "Ms." for females.