Capitalize Names (Proper Case)

Excel Formulas › Text

All versionsPROPERUPPERLOWER

Imported names often arrive ALL CAPS or all lowercase. PROPER capitalizes the first letter of every word; UPPER and LOWER force a single case. One function, instantly tidy.

Quick formula: to title-case the text in A2:
=PROPER(A2)
PROPER uppercases the first letter of each word and lowercases the rest — “maria LOPEZ” becomes “Maria Lopez.”

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

PROPERUPPERLOWER

The example

Messy-case names cleaned to proper case.

AB
1RawProper
2maria LOPEZMaria Lopez
3DEVON smithDevon Smith
4priya patelPriya Patel

The formula

The cleaned name in B2:

=PROPER(A2) // "maria LOPEZ" → "Maria Lopez"

How it works

PROPER walks the string and fixes the case of each word:

  1. It uppercases the first letter after any non-letter (space, hyphen, start of string).
  2. It lowercases every other letter, so all-caps input is tamed too.
  3. Use UPPER(A2) for ALL CAPS or LOWER(A2) for all lowercase when that’s what you need.

PROPER isn’t perfect for real names. It mangles “McDonald” (→ “Mcdonald”), “O’Brien,” and acronyms like “IBM.” For those, fix the exceptions manually or with SUBSTITUTE after PROPER.

Try it: interactive demo

Live demo

Type any text; see PROPER, UPPER, and LOWER.

Variations

ALL CAPS

UPPER forces uppercase:

=UPPER(A2)

all lowercase

LOWER forces lowercase:

=LOWER(A2)

Fix a PROPER exception

Repair “Mcdonald” after PROPER:

=SUBSTITUTE(PROPER(A2), "Mcdonald", "McDonald")

Pitfalls & errors

PROPER breaks names with internal capitals (McDonald, O’Brien, DeShawn) and acronyms (IBM → Ibm). Patch exceptions with SUBSTITUTE or by hand.

It also “capitalizes” after digits and punctuation — “3rd” can become “3Rd.” Watch ordinals and codes.

Convert to values before deleting the source. Copy the PROPER column, Paste Special → Values, then remove the raw column.

Practice workbook

📊
Download the free Capitalize Names (Proper Case) practice workbook
Messy names with live PROPER/UPPER/LOWER and a SUBSTITUTE exception fix, plus 4 challenges with answers. No sign-up required.

Frequently asked questions

How do I capitalize the first letter of each word in Excel?
Use =PROPER(A2). It uppercases the first letter of every word and lowercases the rest, turning "maria LOPEZ" into "Maria Lopez".
How do I make text all uppercase or all lowercase?
Use =UPPER(A2) for all capitals and =LOWER(A2) for all lowercase.
Why does PROPER mess up names like McDonald?
PROPER capitalizes only the first letter of each word, so internal capitals (McDonald, O'Brien) and acronyms get flattened. Fix those cases with SUBSTITUTE or manually.

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Related formulas: Clean up messy text · Extract first & last name · Pad numbers with leading zeros

Function references: PROPER · UPPER · LOWER