Hmmm...

=COUNTIF(M2:M16,"steve")

works for me. Check that there are no leading or trailing spaces.

In article ,
WYN wrote:

i have employee names in column m2:m16.i am using the countif to count the
number of times an employee shows up in the list.for some strange reason
countif will not work with the name steve!! any suggestions?
thx wynb