How to generate email addresses from names
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3Build first-initial-plus-surname addresses from name columns — onboarding sheets, test data.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =LOWER(LEFT(A2,1)&B2)&"@example.com" | A2=first name, B2=last name. Adjust the pattern to your convention. |
| Google Sheets | =LOWER(LEFT(A2,1)&B2)&"@example.com" | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =LOWER(LEFT(A2,1)&B2)&"@example.com" | Identical. |
How it works
LEFT takes the first initial, & welds it to the surname, LOWER normalizes the case, and the domain is a literal: John Smith → jsmith@example.com. Real rosters need two more touches: SUBSTITUTE out spaces and apostrophes in surnames (O'Brien, van der Berg), and dedupe collisions — the running-count recipe turns the second jsmith into jsmith2. First.last style is =LOWER(A2&"."&B2)&"@...".
Verified, not just documented
We ran =LOWER(LEFT(A2,1)&B2)&"@example.com" in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned jsmith@example.com — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.