Hello,

Try a helper column:
If your names are in cells A1:A999, then enter into B1:
=COUNTIF($A$1:$A$999,""&A1)+COUNTIF($A$1:$A1,A1)
and copy down to B999.
Now search for value 1 in B1:B999. The corresponding cell in column A
is your alphabetic max.

Please notice that if you have two or more identical alphabetic
maximums, then value 1 will be shown only for the occurence with the
lowest row number (omit the second COUNTIF and look for value 0 if you
need to see all occurrences of the max).

HTH,
Bernd