Ranking text based on duplicate text in a column

[MichaelPitre]

Hello, I have a large worksheet with 8693 rows and 69 columns and I would like to rank how many times a customers name is mentioned in a column. I'm familiar with filtering and pivot tables but my skill levels require I manually add up the customer names.
I thought I could use a =RANK formula but I believe it only works with numbers not text. I tried =COUNTIF(D2:D8693,"<="D2) and that did give me the desired result. I tried adding a helper column on a separate worksheet with all of the names mentioned as a helper list, but could not achieve my desired result. My goal is to see whose name appears the most in a ascending order.
Thank you in advance for taking time out to help me figure out this Excel riddle. Better living through Excel!

 

[MB110]

Hello, I have a large worksheet with 8693 rows and 69 columns and I would like to rank how many times a customers name is mentioned in a column. I'm familiar with filtering and pivot tables but my skill levels require I manually add up the customer names.
I thought I could use a =RANK formula but I believe it only works with numbers not text. I tried =COUNTIF(D2:D8693,"<="D2) and that did give me the desired result. I tried adding a helper column on a separate worksheet with all of the names mentioned as a helper list, but could not achieve my desired result. My goal is to see whose name appears the most in a ascending order.
Thank you in advance for taking time out to help me figure out this Excel riddle. Better living through Excel!

A pivot table should work if you just want a column of unique names and an adjacent column with a count for each name. You can then sort the pivot table in descending order by name count.

John
John
John
John
John
Mary
Mary
Mary
Mary
Mary
Joe
Joe
Joe
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark

<tbody>
[TD="class: xl66"]Names[/TD]
[TD="width: 72"][/TD]
[TD="width: 99"]Row Labels[/TD]
[TD="width: 117"]Count of Names[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Mark[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Mary[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]John[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Joe[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Grand Total[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]24[/TD]

</tbody>

hth,
mb110

 

[MichaelPitre]

That worked. Simple and easy.

A pivot table should work if you just want a column of unique names and an adjacent column with a count for each name. You can then sort the pivot table in descending order by name count.

John
John
John
John
John
Mary
Mary
Mary
Mary
Mary
Joe
Joe
Joe
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark
Mark

<tbody>
[TD="class: xl66"]Names[/TD]

[TD="width: 99"]Row Labels[/TD]
[TD="width: 117"]Count of Names[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Mark[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Mary[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]John[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Joe[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]

[TD="class: xl65"]Grand Total[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]24[/TD]

</tbody>

hth,
mb110