To merge or combine the first and last names in Excel you can make use of the CONCAT Ampersand, Flash Fill or TEXTJOIN functions or formulas.

How to Combine First & Last Name Columns in Excel. In previous versions of Excel, you had to combine first and last names using the Concatenate function, or its shortcut "&" method.

Alternatively, you can merge the values of aligned cells, such as combining first and last names, and then locate duplicates based on the combined data.