Thanks, Bernard. Working well with one hitch:

The first and last names are in two different columns. So, using the
example below, when I do the extracting formula in two columns, I keep, say,
Joe Jones, but eliminate Joe Smith. "Joe" S. cancels "Joe" J. in the first
column.

If that makes sense, do you have a way around it?

Thanks

Dave

"Bernard Liengme" wrote:

1) Use Chip's method to extract the unique names: see
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/duplic...tractingUnique
2) Copy and Paste Special -Values these names to a new column
3) Use COUNTIF to find how many times each name in the unique column occurs
in the original data.
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Dave" wrote in message
...
I have a list a1.a1000 first names, b1.b1000 last names, that are sometimes
duplicative, sometimes not:

A B
Joe Smith
Joe Smith
Joe Jones
Frank Jones
Sally Doe

I want to sort these in rank order with a second column (D) that shows how
many times they show up:
C D
Joe Smith 2
Joe Jones 1
Frank Jones 1
etc.

Thank you

Dave