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Change Name Case

The Change Name Case tool will iterate over the cells in the selected range and apply common capitalization rules to the names.

Form Fields

  • Range: Allows you to set the range to capitalize (it will initially contain the range selected prior to opening the form).
  • Only process names in all caps or all lower case: If checked, Spreadspeed will apply name capitalization rules only to names that are all capitals or all lowercase (e.g. JOHN SMITH" or "john smith").
  • Do not capitalize compound name parts: If checked, sets compound name parts to lower case. See Compound Names section below for more details.
  • Capitalize leading Al, Ben, and Van names: These names are common compound names and first names. If they appear as the leading name in a cell, then they will be capitalized if checked. If you are processing a list of cells containing first names or full names, you will likely want this option checked.
  • Save workbook: See Close and Re-Open Workbook for details.

Compound Names

Compound names have particles that indicate "of a family name" or "of a location". In most cases, they are lower case, such as the "von" in Maria von Trapp. In other cases, the capitalization rules for compound names are not uniform. "Van Der" and "van der", "Al-" and "al-", and "Ben-" and "ben-" are examples of compound name parts that are frequently capitalized or un-capitalized.

if the Do not capitalize compound name parts option is checked, all compound name parts are forced to lowercase.

(The one exception is "de La", where the "La" is capitalized by Spreadspeed.)

Mac Exceptions

Names beginning with "Mac", such as MacDonalds, typically have the letter after Mac capitalized. However, there are many exceptions, plus some that are spelled either way - such as "MacIntire" or "Macintire". The Mac Exceptions list contains an initial list of Mac names that do not have the following letter capitalized. You can edit this list, with one name per line, to add or remove exceptions.

Suffixes

The Suffixes tab lists many common generational and professional name suffixes.  You can edit this list, with one name per line, to add or remove suffixes. Many common suffixes, such as "Jr." do not need to be added to the list because they are capitalized by the normal name capitalization rules. You only need to include names that have all capitals (e.g., DDS for dentist) or mixed casing (e.g., PhD). Variants that include a period after each initial also do not need to be included because they are capitalized by the default capitalization rules, (e.g. D.D.S.).