How to sort full names by last name in Google sheets?

If you have a list of full names in a sheet of Google sheets, now, you want to sort the full names by last name. Are there any quick ways to deal with this task in Google sheets?

Sort full names by last name with a helper column in Google sheets

Sort full names by last name in Excel worksheet with Kutools for Excel

Sort full names by last name with a helper column in Google sheets

To sort full names by last name in Google sheets, you should insert a helper formula column to extract the last name from the full name first, and then sort the rows based on this helper column. Please do with following steps:

1. Please enter this formula: =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("<^>",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","<^>",LEN($A$2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE($A$2," ",""))),1)) into a blank cell to output the result, then press Enter key to extract the last name, see screenshot:

2. Then drag the fill handle down to the cells that you want to fill this formula, all last names in the column A have been extracted at once, see screenshot:

3. Normally, when you sort the data, header row will be sorted as well, so, you should freeze the first row, please click View > Freeze > 1 row, see screenshot:

4. Now, you can sort the helper column, click Data > Sort sheet by column C, please choose from A to Z or from Z to A as you need, see screenshot:

5. And then, the full names have been sorted by the last name as following screenshot shown:

Sort full names by last name in Excel worksheet with Kutools for Excel

If you want to sort names by last name in Excel worksheet, Kutools for Excel’s Advanced Sort feature can helper you to deal with this task quickly and easily.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as this:

1. Select the data range that you want to sort by last name, and then click Kutools Plus > Sort > Advanced Sort, see screenshot:

2. In the Advanced Sort dialog box, select the column name that you want to sort based on in the Column section, and choose Last name form the Sort On drop down list, at last, choose a sort order as you need, see screenshot:

3. Then click Ok button, the data range have been sorted by last name in Column A as following screenshot shown: