There are probably some names that would need to be altered manually but
using your eaxample

=LEFT(A1,find(",",A1)-1)

for the last name, assum you put this in B1, then for first name in C1

=TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(A1,B1&",",""))

or you can make sure the next column to the right is empty, then do
datatext to columns, delimited, select comma and click finish

That will basically split the columns into 2

Also when you are done with the formulas, copy them, then do editpaste
special as values in place to make them independent of the name column

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

"Elise" wrote:

I have spreadsheet that has a column for names. The names have been input as
follows: lastname, firstname". Is there a way to copy the first name to a
new column and the last name to a different column?
--
Elise King-Lynch