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Assuming First Names are in column A starting from Row#2, then try this...<br />
<br />
In B2 (or in some other cell in row2)<br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42999555-1"><span>=COUNTIF(A:A,A2)</span>
</code></pre>
and then copy it down.<br />
<br />
Otherwise, you can simply insert a Pivot Table and drag the First Name field in the Row Area and drag the First Name field again in the Values Area.
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Thanks Subodh. &nbsp;Do I have to identify each criterion (that is, go through the entire column to identify each name that appears)?
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Count-First-Names.xlsx

Craig

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Subdoh,<br />
I got it using the Pivot Table option!<br />
Thanks much!
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You're welcome again Craig!<br />
Great! Pivot Table was most suitable for this scenario.<br />
Thanks for the testimonial and feedback Craig!
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Hi all,<br />
Hoping someone can guide me with what I thought would be a straightforward Excel calculation:<br />
Say I have a column containing 10,000 first names. &nbsp;I want to have Excel count how many times each name appears and have that count appear in another column. &nbsp;<br />
Can someone point me to the simplest solution?<br />
Thanks!
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Hi all,
Hoping someone can guide me with what I thought would be a straightforward Excel calculation:
Say I have a column containing 10,000 first names.  I want to have Excel count how many times each name appears and have that count appear in another column.  
Can someone point me to the simplest solution?
Thanks!

Count the number of times each word in a column appears

Microsoft Excel topics include formulas, formatting, VBA macros and user-defined functions, and everything else related to the spreadsheet user interface, including error messages.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office is an integrated suite of applications that includes Outlook, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Visio and InfoPath, along with a number of tools to assist in making the individual components work together. Coding within and between the projects is done in Visual Basic for Applications, known as VBA.