I am trying to align the first names to the left of the cell and the last
names to the right (don't ask me why). I know one way but it requires a
custom number format for each entry. Is the another method anyone here can
suggest to get the same thing without using a custom number format.

Here's how I currently do it.
Say I want "Patrick Stewart" to look like this...
Patrick Stewart
I enter Patrick in the cell and then apply the following custom number
format..
@* "Stewart"
and align the cell to the left.
the "* " tells excel to enter as many spaces as it can to fill the cell.

This method works if I have one or two names in the list I want to do this
with, but it gets cumbersome after more than a handful.